.The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) locked horns with the Delhi Capitals (DC) in a do-or-die match in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 on Tuesday. The Orange Army decided to drop Jonny Bairstow from the XI and replaced him with Kane Williamson in the line-up while Wriddhiman Saha came out to open the innings David Warner, and the decision paid off big time.
The new opening duo came out all guns blazing as it was Saha who played his shots first and from the fourth over, and once he got his eyes in, Warner started smashing even the likes of Ravi Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, and Anrich Nortje. But what followed in the sixth over was least expected. Rabada, the purple cap holder, conceded as many as 22 runs in the final over of the powerplay.
The SRH skipper celebrated his birthday with a 25-ball half-century and helped his team to reach a total of 77/0 in the powerplay, the highest score after six overs this season. Warner and Saha added as many as 107 runs for the opening wicket, but it was Ashwin who managed to fox the former. DC got their first breakthrough in the 10th over of the innings but even then, the run-flow didn’t come down.
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Rather, the run-rate increased further with Saha throwing his bat literally at everything. Not that Saha was lucky with edges, but the shots he connected were class written all over them. Manish Pandey played the supporting role during the 63-run stand for the second wicket which came off just 29 balls. In the process, Saha scored his half-century off just 26 balls and didn’t stop there.
Wriddhiman Saha took a toll on the other DC bowlers as well and he was looking set for a well-deserved century, but he got out to Nortje but not before slamming 87 off just 45 deliveries with the help of 2 fours and a couple of maximums. The platform was set for Pandey and Kane Williamson and they added 49 runs in off their last 33 deliveries after Saha got out. SRH eventually posted a mammoth total of 219 runs on the board for the loss of two wickets.
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Rabada had an extremely bad day at the office and most importantly, he lost the streak of going wicket-less for 25 consecutive matches was broken. He conceded 54 runs in his four overs while the rest of the Delhi bowlers were expensive too.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
Wriddhimaan Saha @Wriddhipops for one dayers and T20 internationals 🤔
Yes yes yes 🤙#SRHvDC #IPL— MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) October 27, 2020
Love it @Wriddhipops when someone demolishes stereotypes!!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 27, 2020
Forget Pant. Saha is making KL Rahul, Samson shiver now. #DCvSRH
— Manya (@CSKian716) October 27, 2020
Wriddhiman Saha playing his best innings of the IPL since the 2014 finals. What a fluent knock, wonderful hitting throughout.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 27, 2020
What. A. Knock. #Saha 👏🙇♂️ #IPL2020
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 27, 2020
Heartening to see @Wriddhipops play a blinder! Phenomenal knock to put @SunRisers on top! Looks like @DelhiCapitals will be chasing a stiff target. #IPL #SRHvDC
— Kris Srikkanth (@KrisSrikkanth) October 27, 2020
that day his hundred was bested by Manish Pandey in the run chase, who is ironically his batting partner right now! #DCvSRH #IPL2020
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) October 27, 2020
When you are a NO.1 wk/batsman in one format for India, playing IPL since 2008, 122 game, avg around 25 and strike rate of 132 and yet find yourself out of playing XI often, this is how you express your frustration! #saha #SRHvDC What an innings @Wriddhipops .
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) October 27, 2020
Very smart batting by @Wriddhipops!
Improvised his shots after picking the line and length of the ball. There was no slogging at all. Played a fantastic innings which I thoroughly enjoyed watching.#SRHvDC #IPL2020
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) October 27, 2020
