Image Credit- BCCI
In contrast to the
ODI World Cup final, Pat Cummins did not make the correct decision when he won
the toss in Ahmedabad. The Gujarat Titans easily chased Sunrisers Hyderabad’s
score of 162 for 8, making it 11 wins out of 12 for home teams in the IPL 2024.
Because a midday start in Ahmedabad would provide a dry surface that would aid
spinners, Cummins wanted Sunrisers to use the pitch first. With anticipation of
the same, the Titans benched quick bowler Spencer Johnson to make room for
left-arm wristspinner Noor to make his season debut.
Before the opener
could cause significant damage, Noor got a googly to rattle Travis Head’s
stumps in his opening over. On this surface, Noor’s googly was especially
effective. While giving up just ten runs, he bowled 13 of them. With the help
of a few late hits from Sunrisers, his stint of 1 for 32 handed Titans their
first lead of the match.
Rashid, the older Afghanistan teammate, was also buoyed by Noor’s bowling.
Rashid had just given up 49 runs against the Chennai Super Kings in his
previous game, but he began Sunday’s term with an early 15-run over thanks to
two sixes from Abhishek Sharma.
They fell after
getting set this time, in contrast to the Mumbai Indians game, where every
Sunrisers hitter who had a start made a spectacular play. Maybe the intention
was to optimise the number of runs that a strong batting order could produce,
but they were out of the game before the big blow.
By getting a length ball wide and forcing a mishit to cover, Mohit slowed
things down and forced an error from Abhishek. Mohit finished his opening spell
with 1-12 after bowling another clean over against Klaasen and Markram, with
the surface helping pace-off deliveries.
Mohit was instrumental in Sunrisers scoring only 40 runs in their last five
overs. The only six he conceded was when he delivered a full toss, but
otherwise his playlist of change-up deliveries worked wonderfully.
Similar to the
Titans, the Sunrisers changed their strategy from the previous game by
selecting Washington over Umran Malik as the impact player. They also used
Shahbaz’s left-arm orthodox spin to begin the bowling innings.
However, it soon became apparent that the pitch had loosened as the afternoon
wore into the evening. In typical Wriddhiman Saha flair, he attacked the new
ball right away, hitting his old Bengal teammate Shahbaz for a six in the first
over. Subsequently, he dashed across the pitch to promptly dismiss Bhuvneshwar
Kumar and graciously accepted Umesh Yadav’s gift of a complete toss over the
leg side.
After two incredible
years of Twenty20 cricket, Miller’s year in 2024 has been forgettable. His
inability to identify a boundary in his first 16 deliveries appeared to be the
beginning of his problems. However, there was a brief respite as Miller received
care for a minor ailment. He seems to have changed after it.
Due to his limited movement, Miller decided there was no point in holding back
and took advantage of Markande’s regular full-and-wide deliveries to score 26
runs in the 16th over. Additionally, Miller watched Unadkat’s opening delivery
of the 20th ball land in his arc and, predictably, he blasted it out of the
park to end the innings undefeated at 44.