David Warner and Vijay Shankar’s 133-run partnership took Sunrisers Hyderabad into the playoffs, with an eight-wicket win against the Gujarat Lions.
The task was simple for SRH, win and advance to the playoffs. They did exactly that, and it was their captain Warner (69 off 52 balls) who led them in their chase to victory.
The GL had an exquisite start, their openers racing to 105 in just 10 overs.
Dwayne Smith and Ishan Kishan both raced to half-centuries until Nelson struck, as Rashid Khan (3-34) dismissed Smith (54 off 33 balls) to reduce GL to 111-1 in 11 overs.
What followed was quite spectacular, as the Gujarat Lions recorded the worst collapse in IPL history, by losing 1o wickets for 43 runs.
After an opening stand of 111, they were reduced to 123-5 after only 13.5 overs. Mohammed Siraj (4-32) struck a double in the 13th over, which included the scalp of Kishan (61 off 40 balls), followed by another two from the 18-year-old Afghanistan spinner, Khan.
Siraj took another two in the 17th over, followed by a scalp by Siddarth Kaul and a brace from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-25) as the Lions were skittled for 154 in 19.2 overs.
Kumar continued his dominance as the purple cap holder, taking his wicket tally at the top of the bowler standings to 25.
Despite a double from Praveen Kumar, which set the visitors back at 25-2, Warner batted through the innings to take his side home.
Supported by Shankar (63 off 44 balls), the pair put on 133 for the third wicket as they cruised into the playoffs with an eight-wicket victory.
Elsewhere, the Mumbai Indians beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 runs. Saurabh Tiwary scored 52 off 43 balls (nine fours) and Ambati Rayadu contributed 63 runs off 37 balls (six fours, three sixes) to lead the table-toppers to a total of 173-5.
Hardik Pandya was the pick of the Mumbai Indians bowlers, returning figures of 2-22 in his four overs to restrict KKR to 164-8 and ensure his side ended the round-robin phase atop the standings.
Photo: Shaun Roy/Sportzpics/IPL/BCCI/Cricinfo
