Sunrisers edge Pune despite Zampa six

Cricket365
May 20, 2016

The Sunrisers Hyderabad defended a modest target of 138 to beat the Rising Pune Supergiants by four runs in a thrilling contest and moved to the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) table, despite Adam Zampa taking six wickets for the hosts.

The Supergiants will be disappointed with their batting effort as they could not string any significant partnerships together, but the game still went down to the final over.

Needing 14 runs from the final six balls, Pune would have been confident of winning the game, especially with MS Dhoni still at the crease but experienced seamer Ashish Nehra had other ideas.

Dhoni did hit a six off the fourth ball but was run out trying to keep the strike a ball later which left the Supergiants requiring five runs of the final delivery, to be faced by tailender Zampa.

Zampa swung hard and got a thick outside edge that looked as if it would be go for four, and send the game to a superover, but wicketkeeper Naman Ohja pulled off a magnificent catch diving to his right to win the match for his team.

Ultimately though the top-order of the Supergiants did not make a big enough contribution with the willow as besides Dhoni (30), only George Bailey (34) and Ravi Ashwin (29) came to the party.

Nehra was the pick of the bowlers as he finished with figures of three for 29 while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques picked up one scalp each as the Supergiants were restricted to 133 for eight.

Earlier, the Sunrisers scratched their way to 137 for eight in their 20 overs as only opener Shikhar Dhawan (33) and Kane Williamson (32) made any headway with the bat for the men in orange.

Aussie leg spinner Zampa mesmerised the batsman with his turn and bounce and ended with the second best figures ever in IPL cricket of six for 19 in four overs though it was a shame that he was on the losing side.