IPL 10: Eagle attack lays Lions low

Hyderabad: The Eagles encircled the wounded Lions and cruelly dug their hook beaks and razor sharp claws into the hapless beasts to serve themselves a special Sunday feast and fly to the top of the points table. The second straight victory, by nine wickets, at home boosted the Orange outfit’s confidence. Meanwhile, Gujarat’s cup of woes is overflowing.

Restricting the visitors to a lowly 135 provided Sunrisers captain David Warner the right opportunity to play himself into form. He did that with aplomb by smashing his 23rd half-century in his 47th match for the Sunrisers. It was also Warner’s ninth fifty at home — the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.

The six boundaries and four sixes he hit and a cheeky handover of his lost shoe to bowler Basil Thampi while taking a run pointed to the time the Australian had to get back in his groove with an unbetaen 76.

At the other end, Moises Henriques cranked up the heat to slam a 38-ball 52 that included six fours as the hosts romped home with 4.3 overs to spare. The only consolation for Gujarat bowlers was taking a wicket off the opposition – they had lost to KKR by 10 wickets on Friday.

Earlier, spinner Rashid Khan’s incisive spell meant the Lions limped to a lowly total. The 18-year-old bamboozled the Gujarat big bats with intriguing lines, evident from all three of his victims falling leg before wicket. The Afghan player sent down four overs, bowled 11 dot balls and conceded just 19 runs to continue his IPL fairytale – a Man of the Match award in only his second game.

Rashid struck with his fifth ball, trapping the dangerous Brendon McCullum in the fifth over. He could have had another one next ball had Warner held on to a catch that flew off the edge of Suresh Raina’s bat at slip but that did not matter much as he fell to Rashid after making just five runs.

In between, Aaron Finch was done in by a Rashid ruffle after making just three. Opener Jason Roy, who was looking in good nick, had to drag himself to the dugout after some anxious moments on the field courtesy the third umpire taking his time to adjudicate a call on Shikhar Dhawan’s forward diving catch at mid-wicket off Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling.

At 57/ 4, the Lions were badly hurt. Dwayne Smith (37) and former Indian wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik (30) then stitched together a stand of 56 in 46 balls to apply balm before the West Indian attempted to up the ante. Substitute Vijay Shankar was glad to pouch the aerial shot at deep mid-wicket, Bhuvneshwar Kumar being the one bowling the 17th over.

Similar aggressive intent led to Karthik’s innings being cut short four balls later as he edged Nehra to wicketkeeper Naman Ojha.