Nitish Reddy has a Vijay Merchant Trophy quadruple ton to his name as an opener for Andhra. But the jump from age-group cricket to the big stage hasn’t been straightforward. Nitish Reddy debut season in the IPL last year saw him feature in just two games as a bowler with no batting opportunity in either outings.
It was in order to preserve his rare skillset – of a genuine pace-bowling allrounder – that his coaches and advisors had suggested a switch to the middle order for Nitish Reddy the batter in his late teens. Only his second game into IPL 2024 now, the 20-year-old Nitish Reddy proved why the batting promotion was worth the punt from the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Sunrisers Hyderabad overcame the heroics of Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma once again to prevail victorious by 2 runs defending 182 runs.
Pitch and Toss
63m and 70m side boundaries while the straight boundary is at 72m. This looks like a similar pitch to the day game that was played here, the pitch looks rock hard and it does look like a 200-run surface. There’s an even covering of grass, the power packed SRH batting line-up will enjoy playing here. Plenty of runs here tonight, not much dew expected either. Another high scoring affair, reckon Deep Dasgupta and Simon Katich, in their pitch report
Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and chose to bowl with no changes from the previous team which chased 200 versus Gujarat Titans (GT) with Prabhsimran Singh as Impact Sub. Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins batting first too made no changes in his playing 11 with Rahul Tripathi as Impact Sub.
Arshdeep Singh helps Punjab ace powerplay
At the start of the match, Punjab had a decent start after winning the toss. In what was his best outing so far in IPL 2024, left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh had an opening spell to remember as he prized out both Travis Head and Aiden Markram in the space of three balls. Head could have been dismissed off the first ball of the innings but Punjab Kings failed to review an outside edge.
It allowed Head to then cut loose with three consecutive boundaries off Rabada in his next over. But Arshdeep culled the blows by having Head miscuing a big hit that was taken well by Shikhar Dhawan who had to pedal back and across from mid off. With some movement on offer still, Arshdeep then angled one across Markram who nicked behind giving Arshdeep figures of 2-8 in his first spell.
Coming into the game Arshdeep Singh had four wickets in as many games in IPL 2024. Against SRH, he doubled his season tally on his way to figures of 4 for 29. The first of those came when on the second ball of the third over, Dhawan turned around 180 degrees and back-pedaled from mid-off to catch Head.
Two deliveries later, Arshdeep angled one across Markram, and had him edging behind to the wicketkeeper. Arshdeep’s first spell figures were 2-0-8-2, and as a result, SRH had their worst powerplay of the season, being restricted to 40 for 3. Before Tuesday night, Arshdeep had only one wicket in 20 balls in the death overs this season. His economy rate was 11.70. But against SRH, he was brought back for the death overs, where he bowled two out of the four.
PBKS chip away wickets at regular intervals in the middle.
Despite Arshdeep’s early strikes, SRH kept going hard with Abhishek Sharma embodying that effort. He struck Sam Curran for a four an a six but in an attempt to keep it going, he gave the bowler the charge but only to hit to cover point where Shashank took a good low catch. At 39/3 in five overs, SRH opted to bolstered their batting by subbing out Head for Rahul Tripathi. However, on a pitch that had some assistance for the pacers still Tripathi struggled to get going initially against Harshal Patel who eventually picked him up.
Curran pushed for a review against Tripathi’s attempted upper-cut and was proved right as the batter was found to have nicked behind giving Harshal a wicket in the process. For SRH, things took a turn for the worse when Heinrich Klaasen mistimed a loft off Harshal and holed out to long off.
Nitish Reddy turns it around and rescues SRH from middle order hiccups.
Just when the innings seemed to be going nowhere at 100/5, SRH found two youngsters answering their distress call. 20-year-old Nitish Reddy had been thrust in early at No. 4. With wickets falling consistently, Nitish Reddy’s first 18 balls fetched only 14 runs. But with counterattack as the fallback option, he along with Abdul Samad proceeded to take apart PBKS in the middle overs.
Nitish Reddy’s last 19 balls saw him hit three fours and five sixes as he raced away to a well-earned fifty, with a pull off Rabada being a standout shot before he laid into Harpreet Brar in his final over to hit him for 22 runs. Samad, at the other end, picked up four boundaries in total off Harshal Patel and played his part in a 50-run stand that came off just 20 balls.
Nitish Reddy’s heart would have been in his mouth during the carnage in the final over. After all, he had spilled Ashutosh’s catch the first ball of the final over. But it was Reddy’s knock of 64 from 37 balls that rescued SRH from a precarious 64 for 4 in the tenth over and took them to 182.
After Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram fell cheaply, it was down to Nitish Reddy to do the repair work. On 14 from 18 balls at one stage, he slammed Harpreet Brar for four and a six in the 11th over. Kagiso Rabada was hooked over long leg for six, and Sam Curran was smashed over deep square. But Nitish Reddy really turned the screws in the 15th over, when he deposited Brar for 4, 6, 4, 6 off successive balls.
Blow for blow at the finish line as SRH finishes with 182 for 9 at end of 20 overs.
The final four overs saw SRH lose three crucial wickets but also manage 32 runs with Shahbaz Ahmed and Jaydev Unadkat managing crucial boundaries. In between, Arshdeep finished off as he started with a double-wicket over that saw him get both the set batters. The eventual target of 183 ended up as a competitive one even as dew began to settle in.
Nitish Reddy and Abdul Samad had added 50 in just 19 balls when Arshdeep went full and wide to Samad on the third ball of the 17th over, who found deep point. The fast bowler then removed Reddy, who only managed to loft a low full toss to long-on. Shahbaz Ahmed took 15 from the 19th over of the innings to somewhat spoil Arshdeep’s figures, but it was still an excellent day out for the quick despite ending on the losing side.
SRH choke PBKS in the powerplay
Punjab Kings ended up with the lowest powerplay total of the season with just 27 coming in the first six overs. Skipper Pat Cummins set the tone by getting Jonny Bairstow bowled for a duck in his first over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar complemented that with two strikes – first getting Prabhsimran Singh to miscue a big hit and then having Shikhar Dhawan stumped thanks to Heinrich Klassen’s sharp glovework. At 20/3, the chase appeared to have derailed early but Punjab Kings managed to keep hitting back.
A cluster of cameos keeps Punjab Kings in the hunt.
Punjab’s riposte to the early breaks came in the form of more bluster from the middle order. First Sam Curran hit a couple of fours and as many sixes before he fell for 29 with Cummins taking a good overhead catch. But Sikandar Raza continued the good work matching Curran’s boundary-count in his 22-ball 28 while Jitesh Sharma scored a quick 19. But both Raza and Jitesh fell in quick succession, leaving Punjab Kings with an uphill task of chasing 69 in 27 balls, which was turned into a nail-biter by the brilliance of Ashutosh and Shashank.
Ashutosh and Shashank provide the thrills as Punjab agonizingly fell short by 2 runs.
The heroes of Punjab’s previous win almost did an encore, launching an exhilarating hitting show at the death. Defending 29 off the final over, Jaydev Unadkat bowled as many as three wides and also saw three dropped catches out of which two were palmed over the ropes. The brute power for Ashutosh was paired with Shashank Singh’s smart strokeplay.
In the 17th, Shashank took on Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He got a streaky outside edge over short third first ball of the over for four. The next ball was drilled to wide long-off, and the fifth one slashed to deep extra cover.
Ashutosh then kept Kings in the hunt, swatting and ramping Pat Cummins for back-to-back fours in the 18th over. The odds still remained with SRH, with Kings requiring 39 in the last two overs. T Natarajan was taken for ten, an excellent over in the context of things, which left Unadkat with 28 to defend in the 20th.
Unadkat’s final over started with a six, two wides and another six. Fourteen runs gone in two balls. But he came back well conceding just six runs in his next three balls. Shashank deposited the last ball for six, but Kings narrowly missed out on getting over the line.
Sunrisers Hyderabad dropped three catches of Ashutosh Sharma in the final over off which Punjab Kings needed 29 runs. Two of them went over the ropes for sixes and nearly turned the match. But when the third went down, only one delivery remained and Kings needed nine. Shashank Singh sent the last ball miles over the long-off boundary, but Kings fell short by just two runs in their chase of 183 to give Sunrisers their third win of the season.
It was Jaydev Unadkat who bowled that last over which went for 26. As fate would have it, it was Unadkat who Harshal Patel had dropped on the final ball of Sunrisers’ innings and the ball had popped up over the rope for six. Fine margins. What a dream it would have been had Shashank and Ashutosh pulled off another heist like they did five days back against Gujarat Titans. But eventually, they were left with too many to get in the final over of the chase.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Shikhar Dhawan the loosing skipper said : I feel that Shashank and Ashutosh played a great knock, we restricted them to a good total, but we couldn’t cash in on the first 6 overs, lost 3 wickets and that’s where we fell behind and it cost us in the end. When the wicket wasn’t offering a lot of bounce, every individual will have to look back and change their approach.
We dropped a catch off the last ball, we could have kept them down by 10-15 runs, but batting let us down. It’s great to see youngsters chipping in with such consistency (on Shashank and Ashutosh). There was always hope that they could finish the game, but we got so close and that’ll give us confidence going into the future games, but we’ll have to do better going ahead.
Nitish Reddy was Player of the Match for his all round abilities said : For me it’s like a big contribution for my team and for myself. I have been telling myself that I should believe in myself. The seamers were bowling really well, I didn’t want to take on them. I knew that the spinners would come and I wanted to attack them, I just did that.
The whole tournament, they are bowling slow bouncers and it’s really working. I also used the dimensions to get the wicket. I just want to continue this performance with the bat or ball or with the fielding, I just want to be like this.
Earlier, after losing three wickets in the powerplay, SRH posted a total in excess of 180 thanks to Nitish Reddy’s maiden half-century and some crucial runs scored by Samad and Shahbaz. In reply, PBKS too struggled against the moving new ball. Bhuvi bowled a beautiful opening over. An ugly shot from Bairstow resulted in him getting cleaned up by Cummins. Bhuvi removed Prabhsimran and Dhawan in his following two overs which resulted in Punjab registering the lowest powerplay total of the season (27/3).
Curran struck a few boundaries and looked to take the attack to the SRH bowlers but his knock was cut short by Natarajan, courtesy a superb catch from Cummins. Raza perished while playing a premeditated scoop shot. Jitesh couldn’t make a notable contribution. Post that, Shashank-Ashutosh duo smashed 66 runs off just 27 balls to take their team so close to the target.
Phew! With 67 runs needed off the last four overs, SRH were firm favorites. But the heroes for Punjab in the previous game, put up a brave fight. Shashank Singh hit three boundaries in an over off Bhuvi and his partner Ashutosh Sharma struck back-to-back fours off Cummins.
With 39 needed off the last two overs, Natarajan conceded a couple of boundaries but the left-arm pacer nailed a couple of yorkers to give away just 10 runs off the penultimate over. The final over turned out to be an eventful one – three dropped catches (two of them palmed over the ropes), three wides and three sixes. And ICYMI, Harshal Patel palmed the final ball of the first innings over the boundary rope!
There was some assistance for the seamers early on and the new-ball bowlers (Rabada-Arshdeep & Bhuvneshwar-Cummins) made merry. While SRH recovered from 39/3 to finish on 182, PBKS got to 180 from 20/3. Three uncapped Indians (Nitish, Shashank and Ashutosh) were superb with the bat. It’s Hyderabad who pocket two crucial points and it’s time to bring the curtains down on this encounter.
Punjab Kings stay at home and have a three-day gap before Rajasthan Royals come visiting on April 13 while Sunrisers Hyderabad have a bigger break for five days before they got Bengaluru to take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 15