Sunrisers' gamble pays off

In the build-up to IPL 2015, many had expected Dale Steyn and Trent Boult running in together in Sunrisers Hyderabad's orange to send shivers down opposition batsmen. But for most of the season, Sunrisers have preferred to include just one of the two.

The decision has been more to do with the fact that when it comes to Indian talent, their bowling outweighs their batting by a distance. And with the limited Indian domestic options not clicking so far, Sunrisers were compelled to bench both their fearsome pacemen on Thursday, bolstering their batting instead by including Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara to aid David Warner and Moises Henriques.

It resulted in the two Kumars - Bhuvneshwar and Praveen - being joined by Ishant Sharma in the eleven; perhaps the first instance of three Indian quicks, all active international bowlers, playing for the same IPL side.

David Warner had perished soon after getting Sunrises off the blocks and becoming the second batsman to cross the 400-run mark this season, but the other two lefty batsmen - Shikhar Dhawan and Morgan - ensured Sunrisers piled on their highest total of the season.

With hardly any of the non-openers firing for them so far, Dhawan has appeared to have been keeping himself in check for most of the campaign. But with the cushion of additional batsmen, he let himself loose right from the word go against Royals.

Ever since he dispatched the first ball of the match, bowled by Deepak Hooda, to the point boundary, Dhawan seemed to be at his fluent best. He continued to play his strokes till his free-flowing knock was curtailed by James Faulkner soon after the batsman celebrated his third fifty of the tournament.

Dhawan's dismissal brought back the fears of Sunrisers throwing away another good start. But Morgan not only justified his inclusion, but even overshadowed Dhawan's impressive knock with his clean hitting. His five huge sixes - including two each off Shane Watson and Pravin Tambe - helped Sunrisers add 68 runs in the last five overs. It meant Royals had to chase at 10 an over from the start.

If Royals were chase down a target of 202, one of the top three had to do a Chris Gayle. With Ajinkya Rahane perishing in the first over and Watson joining him before the end of the fielding restrictions, it was up to Steven Smith to keep Royals in the hunt. And Smith did a Gayle in his own way to give Royals a glimmer. He is not as robust as Gayle, but his timing is just as sweet, if not better.

As wickets tumbled regularly at the other end, Smith preferred to find gaps with neat drives in the first half of the chase. Realising that the required rate was getting out of hands, he swiftly switched into six-hitting mode. The two straight sixes he hit off leggspinner Karn Sharma were as good as any other shot in the tournament. The threatening knock, though, was cut short when he missed a cutter from Bopara.

Smith may not have seen his team home, but he certainty did a Gayle. While Gayle scored 51.76% of Royal Challengers total against Kings XI during his whirlwind 117, Smith had tallied 56.19% of Royals' runs at the time of his dismissal.

The presence of Watson and Faulkner as genuine allrounders in the Royals' ranks has meant Chris Morris has been far from being considered for that role. But Morris easily outdid the Australian duo in both departments to justify his tag of the most expensive signing for Royals in the 2015 player auction.

When Morris came on to bowl the last over, Sunrisers were 195 for 4. With the previous four overs, including one by Morris that went for 19, having produced 62 runs, the visitors were set to cross the 210-run mark. But Morris applied the brakes with a brilliant last over. Thanks to three low full-tosses and a perfect yorker, Morris conceded just six runs to swing some momentum in favour of his team.

He did a similar job with the bat. With 40 required from the last two overs, the game was all but lost for the Royals. But Morris swung his way to three consecutive sixes off Praveen Kumar to get his team closest to the target. The three sixes - all three on the on-side - brought the target down to 22 off nine balls. But with 19 runs required off the last over, Morris couldn't really go after Bhuvneshwar who consistently bowled fuller outside off stump.

If Sunrisers scored 68 runs in the last five overs, Royals matched that tally. Similarly, there was nothing to choose between the two teams when it came to number of boundaries. While Sunrisers hit 28 boundaries, including 21 fours and seven sixes, Royals equalled the number, scoring more runs courtesy 18 fours and 10 sixes.

But the major difference between the two teams in a close contest turned out to be the wides bowled by the Royals bowlers. The six wides Royals bowled leaked 10 extra runs. In comparison, Sunrisers were tidy with the line, bowling a solitary wide. In the end, with the Sunrisers hanging in by just seven runs, it won't be exaggeration to say the number of extras conceded by Royals cost them the game.