Shami sizzles, Pant dazzles as LSG open points account

Hyderabad: Mohammed Shami asked probing questions not only to Sunrisers Hyderabad batters but also to the national selection committee with an opening spell for ages while skipper Rishabh Pant upped his game when it mattered to headline Lucknow Super Giants’ thrilling five-wicket victory in an IPL match on Sunday.

In a spell that oozed skill and class in equal measure, Shami bowled an astounding 18 dot balls to finish with 2 for 9 in four overs which largely became responsible for Sunrisers Hyderabad being restricted to 156 for 9.

LSG rode on Aiden Markram’s 27-ball-45 and skipper Rishabh Pant’s 50-ball-68 not out to surpass the target with one ball to spare.

The chase got a touch tricky towards the end with 9 needed off the final over but Pant smote Jaydev Unadkat for two straight boundaries -- second a forehand tennis like slap before another lofted boundary over mid-off to finish the game in style.

It was an innings that had nine boundaries and his choice of strokes was measured on a slowish track where SRH spinners Harsh Dubey and Shvang Kumar made the ball talk.

But it was Shami, the 35-year-old artist, who set up the match in the LSG’s bowling Powerplay itself. His scalps were the crack opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, dismissed off successive deliveries across two overs with different variation of slower deliveries.

Shami was ably supported by young Prince Yadav (2/34 in 4 overs), whose outswinger (inswinger for Ishan Kishan) was the ball of the match.

While Pant would have fancied bowling SRH out for less than 100 after restricting them to 26 for 4 at one stage, Heinrich Klaasen (62 off 41 balls) and all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy (56 off 33 balls) counter-attacked to add 116 runs for the fifth wicket.

But there was a third act to the tale as SRH had another batting collapse losing five wickets for 14 runs in last 2.2 overs.

During the chase, LSG did stutter in phases but Pant, who curbed his impetuosity showed glimpses of his vintage self but also concentrated on crossing the line.

Overlooked time and again, 35-year-old Shami sent a stern reminder to the national selection committee with an opening spell for the ages that was pivotal to Lucknow Super Giants choking Sunrisers Hyderabad despite the Klaasen-Reddy stand.

The cerebral operator in Shami quickly understood that he would have to take the pace off the deliveries on this track and did so promptly.

He bowled four fullish blockhole deliveries to Head and allowed a single. When Abhishek took strike, the final delivery of the opening over was a loopy fuller delivery on the fifth stump which the opener tried to pitch. Instead of a conventional slip, a ‘fly slip’ or short third-man on the circle was stationed and Manimaran Siddharth took a smart diving catch.