Klaasen and Nitish Reddy power Sunrisers Hyderabad to 156 against Lucknow

Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy stitched a crucial 116-run stand to rescue Sunrisers Hyderabad from an early collapse and guide them to 156 for nine against Lucknow Super Giants in their IPL league match in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: A superb fifth-wicket partnership of 116 off 63 balls between Heinrich Klaasen (62, 41b, 5×4, 2×6) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (56, 33b, 3×4, 5×6) pulled Sunrisers Hyderabad out of the woods and helped the team set a challenging target of 157 for Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL league match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.

Earlier, it was a sensational start for Lucknow, which preferred to bowl first. The tried and trusted pacer Mohammed Shami raised the bar with wonderful variations on what was a very good pitch.

---

First, Shami deceived the dangerous Abhishek Sharma, who went for an ambitious drive on off-stump, only to be caught smartly by Siddharth in the first over for a two-ball duck. Then, Shami struck again, inducing a poor stroke from the other explosive opener Travis Head, who went for the drive without getting to the pitch of the ball, only to end up hitting straight to mid-off in the third over.

Then, the other pacer Prince Yadav cleaned up Sunrisers captain Ishan Kishan, who was beaten all ends up by a ball that swung back sharply from off-stump to stun the near-capacity crowd as the score read a pathetic 11 for three in 3.3 overs. Shami had a terrific first spell of 3-0-7-2.

Leg-spinner Digvesh Rathi was in the act soon,getting Liam Livingstone caught behind by captain Rishabh Pant when the batter failed to connect the scoop properly in the eighth over (26/4).

Lucknow bowlers were spot on, giving little away in the first 10 overs (35/4), bowling to the field with Shami completing his quota of four overs (4-0-9-2), including 18 dot balls.

But thereafter, it was the Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen show as the two, for the second consecutive game, were involved in a rescue act. It was Nitish who was the first to break the shackles with some lusty blows, including a six over long-off off Prince.

No doubt, Klaasen was lucky on 19 to see deep mid-wicket Mukul Chouhary fail to latch on to a difficult running catch to his right near the boundary off left-arm spinner M Siddharth in the 13th over. But he showed his class, pulling nonchalantly Prince Yadav into the stands and then hitting four fours off pacer Avesh Khan in the 14th over. Soon, Nitish delighted the crowd with three huge sixes in one over off Digvesh to bring Sunrisers back into the game.

It was a terrific fightback from a seemingly hopeless position for the home team, scoring 156 for nine in 20 overs, though in the last five overs it could score only 42 runs.