Adam Zampa snared six wickets but it was not enough to prevent the Sunrisers Hyderabad holding on to clinch a narrow four-run win over the Rising Pune Supergiants in the Indian Premier league at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam yesterday. Australian leg-spinner Zampa finished with career-best figures of 6-19 off four overs while he also captured the second-best figures in the competition’s history behind only 6-14 from Sohail Tanveer for the Rajasthan Royals against the Chennai Super Kings in 2008 as Hyderabad were restricted to 137-8.
Left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra then picked up 3-29 as Pune could only manage 133-8. The loss effectively ended Pune’s hopes of making the playoffs while Hyderabad moved to the top of the table, with 14 points from 10 matches.
Pune began the last over of the match needing 14 runs to win the match but Nehra had Thisara Perera (17) caught at extra cover off the third ball of the over. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (30) clubbed the fourth ball over long-on for six before being run out off the fifth ball trying to steal a second run while Zampa (0) was superbly caught by keeper Naman Ojha off the last ball of the match.
Earlier, Dhawan (33) was the top scorer Hyderabad. Zampa was the wrecker-in-chief for Pune while Ravichandran Ashwin (1-16) and RP Singh (1-23) claimed a wicket each.
Opting to bat, Hyderabad got off to a slow start in the first two overs scoring just 34 runs. As pressure mounted on openers Dhawan (33) and skipper David Warner (11), seamer R.P. Singh dismissed in-form Warner in the third over to have the visitors at 18/1.
Despite the early wicket, Dhawan played positively sneaking in with ones, twos and couple of boundaries to help team reach 34/1 after completion of powerplay.
The left hander was supported well in the other end by incoming batsman Kane Williamson (31). After striking two boundaries and two sixes, as Dhawan was aiming at yet another half-century, veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin removed him in the 11th over to have Sunrisers at 64/2.
With both the openers back in pavilion, Williamson and new batsman Yuvraj Singh (23) took some time in the middle to get settle down but once Yuvraj figured out the wicket well, he unleashed his cricketing shots striking two sixes and one four in three balls to put Hyderabad back into the game.
But a much needed bowling change by Pune skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni worked wonders as young leg-spinner Zampa dismissed Yuvraj to put brakes on the scoring. Soon after, Williamson too departed in the 18th over, followed by Moisen Henriques (10) to have Hyderabad in a spot of bother to post a competitive total.
Next up, Zampa bowling the 20th over dismissed Deepak Hooda (14), Ojha (7) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1) to claim a brilliant six wicket-haul.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 137/8 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 33; Adam Zampa 6-19, Ravichandran Ashwin 1-16, RP Singh 1-23) bt Rising Pune Supergiants 133/8 in 20 overs (G Bailey 34, R Ashwin 29, MS Dhoni 30; A Nehra 3-29) by four runs.