It was a story of leaders showing their men the way on the opening day of the Champions League T20 qualifiers here on Tuesday. Shikhar Dhawan helped see the Sunrisers Hyderabad home in a testing chase after Kandurata Maroons skipper Lahiru Thirimanne too had sparkled with the bat.
Needing 169 to win their opening match, the Sunrisers were given a flier by Dhawan and Parthiv Patel. The two left-handers had the Maroons looking clueless about checking their advance as the runs accrued at a steady, relentless pace.
Hyderabad paced the chase superbly, bring up the 50 in 5.3 overs, the 100 in 10.4 and 150 in 17.1. Patel led the early charge but once Dhawan had changed gears there was no stopping him. The opener batsman hit two boundaries in the innings’ third over and three more off ‘mystery spinner’ Ajantha Mendis next to pick up momentum.
When Patel fell for 52 (42b, 7x4) in the 14th over, the Sunrisers were already on 121, and the procession of left-handers continued with South African J.P. Duminy coming out to replace him. Through the two innings, only one right-hander, Dilhara Lokuhettige of the Maroons saw action at the crease.
At no stage did Dhawan (71, 53b, 11x4) allow the asking rate to become a problem, staying ahead of the required eight per over all the way, Hyderabad reaching their target with nine balls and eight wickets in hand, a handy warm-up ahead of Wednesday’s clash against Faislabad.
Duminy was on 6 (6b) and Perera on 32 (11b, 4x4, 2x6) as the Sunrisers ended on 174/2 in 18.3 overs.
Earlier, fronted by four left-handers at the top, three of whom are current Sri Lanka regulars, Kandurata Maroons carved apart the fancied Sunrisers attack to post a challenging 168/3.
Dale Steyn was completely off-colour and with the Lankans taking particular delight in picking on countryman Thisara Perera, the Hyderabad attack was hit off line and length.
With so many left-handers in the top order and wickets not falling, the Sunrisers were forced to keep leg-spinners Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma out of the attack, further reducing Dhawan’s options.
Ishant Sharma was the standout bowler with 2/20 but found almost no support as Thirimanne (54, 39b) and Sangakkara (61 not out) overcame the early departures of Upul Tharanga and Shehan Jayasuriya to take the Maroons to 122/3 with a 89-run third wicket association.