Sunrisers defend 126 on IPL debut

 

Sunrisers Hyderabad 126 for 6 (Perera 30) beat Pune Warriors 104 (Steyn 3-11, Mishra 3-19) by 22 runs

Dale Steyn took three in four balls to close out the match

Sunrisers Hyderabad made a winning debut in the IPL as they defended a low score at their home ground on a slow, difficult pitch. Thisara Perera, Sunrisers’ $675,000 acquisition, did not begin too badly for his new franchise, top-scoring with a quick 30, taking the first two Pune Warriors wickets and causing a run-out. Amit Mishra wasn’t too far behind, his legbreaks leaving Warriors confounded on a helpful surface. Dale Steyn left the Warriors top order dazed with his outswingers and returned to blow away the lower order with three wickets in four balls.

Not many would have given Sunrisers a chance when they almost sleepwalked their way to 126 after being put in, barring a brief effort to break free from Perera. Deccan Chargers, the franchise Sunrisers replaced, had an atrocious record at this ground, and Sunrisers appeared set to extend that in front of a lukewarm turnout. But they came out a different unit with the ball.

Steyn, charged up as almost always, beat the Warriors openers repeatedly with quick outswingers. Ishant Sharma was correct and testing, as he can be in helpful conditions. The wickets came Perera’s way, though.

After running him fine for a boundary, Robin Uthappa tried repeating the stroke and went caught behind. Marlon Samuels gave the lone slip catching practice in Perera’s next over, Kumar Sangakkara deserving credit for sticking with the fielder and the bowler.

Warriors’ batting line-up stretched way down to No. 8 Mitchell Marsh, but it was to come unstuck as Mishra brought out his control and variations. Yuvraj Singh, on IPL comeback, walked down, and was easily beaten and stumped. Manish Pandey’s struggle to put bat to ball ended with a mishit slog off Mishra, as the asking-rate started mounting.

Almost everything clicked for Sangakkara on the field. He needed young Ashish Reddy to bowl a decent 17th over, and the bowler responded by uprooting Ross Taylor’s leg stump with a full, slower delivery.

With 33 needed off three overs, Perera was to make another important contribution. Angelo Mathews, who came in at No. 7, smashed a full toss straight back at Perera, who stuck out his right hand, and the dangerous Marsh was caught short of his crease at the non-striker’s end.

Warriors’ lower order panicked against Steyn, trying to attack the fast bowler while their captain looked on helplessly from the other end, ruing that his team left as many as seven deliveries unused.

Sunrisers used up their quota when they batted, but weren’t able to find any momentum. The top four got only starts, and it was down to Perera to breathe some life into a suffocating innings. He began with consecutive fours off Rahul Sharma and slogged Marlon Samuels’ darts for two more boundaries before mishitting an Ashok Dinda full toss in the 18th over. Perera’s fall meant Sunrisers weren’t able to finish well with the bat, but they were far more determined with the ball.

New beginnings in Hyderabad

Match facts

Friday, April 5, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT) 

Yuvraj Singh will be playing in the IPL after nearly two years

After the top two teams of last year’s points table kicked-off the carnival on Wednesday, the bottom two will meet in Hyderabad on Friday. While the host city has a new team – Sunrisers Hyderabad – led by the same captain Kumar Sangakkara, Pune Warriors have a new captain – Angelo Mathews – after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the entire season.

 

Sunrisers will feel the absence of an in-from Shikhar Dhawan, who was Deccan Chargers’ leading run-scorer last season. After retaining 20 players from the Chargers, Sunrisers revamped their leadership, bringing together Tom Moody and Sangakkara, who had worked together as coach and captain for Sri Lanka. They also have overseas pace options in Dale Steyn and Clint McKay, and allrounders Darren Sammy and Thisara Perera, but only Steyn picks himself.

 

Warriors had an unsettled team last year and the addition of Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Ross Taylor, Abhishek Nayar, and the return of Yuvraj Singh, will bolster their prospects. Steve Smith is more a batsman than allrounder these days and Warriors will be tempted to include Clarke’s replacement, Aaron Finch, who scored two fifties and a hundred against England Lions recently. With Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Wayne Parnell also in the squad, a right balance might not be easy to find.

 

 

Players to watch

Kumar Sangakkara scored 48, 63, 139, 55, 142, 105 and 58 in the recent ODIs and Tests against Bangladesh. He will now have to score in the shortest format against compatriots Ajantha Mendis and Mathews, among others. His captaincy will also be under the spotlight, because he led Chargers to only four wins last season.

 

Yuvraj Singh scored consecutive fifties in the Deodhar Trophy and took 3 for 39 and 3 for 19 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, so his recent form has been promising. With captaincy off his shoulders, and having missed all of 2012, he will want to score more than the two fifties he scored in 2011.

 

 

Stats and trivia

• Both Sunrisers and Warriors won only four out of their 16 matches last season
• Warriors did not have a single bowler in the top-20 wicket-takers last season. Ashish Nehra, now with Delhi Daredevils, took 11 wickets for them and was in 26th place. Their leading run-scorer, Robin Uthappa, was 12th with 405 runs.

 

 

 

Quotes

“I am not looking far ahead. I am not looking at the semi-finals or anything like that. I just want to concentrate on every game, and on what we do in every game.”
Allan Donald, the Warriors coach.

 

“We have got replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”
Sunrisers captain Kumar Sangakkara believes his team has replacements for injured players, such as Shikhar Dhawan.

 

Dhawan’s absence chance for others – Sangakkara

 

A new beginning: After a poor season in 2012, Kumar Sangakkara is leading the Hyderabad team under a new umbrella  Kumar Sangakkara, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, said that while the team would be affected by the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, his injury would offer a younger player a chance to do. Dhawan fractured his finger while fielding in the third Test against Australia in March.

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, said that while the team would be affected by the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, his injury would offer a younger player a chance to do. Dhawan fractured his finger while fielding in the third Test against Australia in March.

“I think it is a huge loss,” Sangakkara said. “I watched him scoring that magnificent century for India against Australia in his debut Test. But, we have replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”

In the absence of Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, the former India wicketkeeper, is likely to shoulder the responsibility of opening the innings along with Sangakkara. “If you look at my career, I batted in almost every place. I am ready for any challenge,” Patel said.

Sangakkara also said their first match against Pune Warriors would help the new team understand where it stands and use it as a reference point for further improvement.

 

“We just want to keep things as simple as possible, play some good cricket, be very competitive in this tournament and then once we played the first match, then we will understand more, probably better, where we are at the moment and build from there again,” he said.

 

Amit Mishra, the team’s legspinner, who struggled with his fitness during the last IPL, was also upbeat about the new season. “In the last edition I rushed into the IPL after an injury. I was not fully fit. This time I come into the IPL with decent performances in domestic cricket. Being one of the top five bowlers in the IPL gives me great pleasure.”

Hyderabad set to debut in new avatar

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD V PUNE WARRIORS, IPL 2013, HYDERABAD

 

Match facts

Friday, April 5, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Big Picture

After the top two teams of last year’s points table kicked-off the carnival on Wednesday, the bottom two will meet in Hyderabad on Friday. While the host city has a new team – Sunrisers Hyderabad – led by the same captain Kumar Sangakkara, Pune Warriors have a new captain – Angelo Mathews – after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the entire season.

Sunrisers will feel the absence of an in-from Shikhar Dhawan, who was Deccan Chargers’ leading run-scorer last season. After retaining 20 players from the Chargers, Sunrisers revamped their leadership, bringing together Tom Moody and Sangakkara, who had worked together as coach and captain for Sri Lanka. They also have overseas pace options in Dale Steyn and Clint McKay, and allrounders Darren Sammy and Thisara Perera, but only Steyn picks himself.

Warriors had an unsettled team last year and the addition Ajantha Mendis, Ross Taylor, Abhishek Nayar, and the return of Yuvraj Singh, will bolster their prospects. Steve Smith is more a batsman than allrounder these days and Warriors will be tempted to include Clarke’s replacement, Aaron Finch, who scored two fifties and a hundred against England Lions recently. With Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Wayne Parnell also in the squad, a right balance might not be easy to find.

Players to watch

Kumar Sangakkara scored 48, 63, 139, 55, 142, 105 and 58 in the recent ODIs and Tests against Bangladesh. He will now have to score in the shortest format against compatriots Ajantha Mendis and Mathews, among others. His captaincy will also be under the spotlight, because he led Chargers to only four wins last season.

Yuvraj Singh scored consecutive fifties in the Deodhar Trophy and took 3 for 39 and 3 for 19 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, so his recent form has promised. With captaincy off his shoulders, and having missed all of 2012, he will want to score more than the two fifties he scored in 2011.

Stats and trivia

• Warriors won only four out of their 16 matches last season
• Warriors did not have a single bowler in the top-20 wicket-takers last season. Ashish Nehra, now with Delhi Daredevils, took 11 wickets for them and was in 26th place. Their leading run-scorer, Robin Uthappa, was 12th with 405 runs.

Quotes

“I am not looking far ahead. I am not looking at the semi-finals or anything like that. I just want to concentrate on every game, and on what we do in every game.”
Allan Donald, the Warriors coach.

“We have got replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”
Sunrisers captain Kumar Sangakkara believes his team has replacements for injured players, such as Shikhar Dhawan.

A new beginning for Hyderabad

 

	Shikhar Dhawan will be batting with renewed confidence after a stellar Test debut

 

Big Picture

The IPL is a two-month long exercise but the controversies and issues it has thrown up in recent years have kept it in the news long after the last ball of each season has been bowled. The financial woes of Deccan Chargers was one such matter and it led to the franchise’s termination by the BCCI, followed by its acquisition for US$79.4 million by the Chennai-based Sun TV network. The new owners of what is now the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise retained 20 players from the original squad, but there have been some changes since. 

The team had a forgettable season in 2012, finishing second from the bottom. Among the attempts made by its new owners to reverse those fortunes is introducing changes to the support staff. Tom Moody has been appointed coach, Waqar Younis has been roped in as a bowling consultant, Simon Helmot was named Moody’s deputy, and Kris Srikkanth and VVS Laxman drafted in as team mentors.

Kumar Sangakkara has been retained as captain, though he won’t play the team’s match(es) in Chennai. There are few specialist batsmen in the squad, which relies primarily on allrounders – those of the bowling variety. Sunrisers, at the auction this year, bought Darren Sammy, Thisara Perera, and Nathan McCullum. They also strengthened their attack with the purchase of medium-pacer Clint McKay and have replaced Darren Bravo with South Africa opener Quinton de Kock.

Chargers managed to save face last year by winning their last two league games after beginning the season horribly, losing five in a row. Theirs was an all-round failure, with bowlers failing to defend sizeable targets when their batsmen clicked, and the batsmen not helping matters with their inconsistency when the bowling did better. Some of their overseas signings this time should boost the middle order and add more depth to the bowling attack.

 

Key players

Shikhar Dhawan was the team’s highest run-getter last year and remains a crucial player in the XI, though he’ll miss the first two weeks of the tournament due to a hand injury he suffered during the Test series against Australia. Dhawan has de Kock, Parthiv Patel, and Sangakkara as potential opening partners, and has plenty of confidence coming in to this IPL after a successful domestic season and a whirlwind century on Test debut in Mohali. 

Dale Steyn is the Sunrisers’ biggest bowling asset, but equally important will be Sangakkara’s leadership. He’s playing under a new group of owners, though with a familiar face in coach Moody, who formerly coached Sri Lanka. Sangakkara had a poor IPL last year, averaging 18.18 in 12 games but has had an excellent run this year with a productive series against Bangladesh. If his own form was a contributing factor to the batting failures last year, he has a team with a group of players – Sammy, Steyn, Dhawan and himself – with recent successes that should be able to drive them to prevent the kind of beginning they had last season.

 

Big names in

Thisara Perera: Sunrisers spent US$675,000 on Perera, a reliable seamer with good variations and big-hitting batsman in the middle order. Perera has a strong reputation for the skills he brings, and his team might be faced with a tough choice between picking him and Sammy in the playing XI given the overseas quota, and Sangakkara and Steyn as likely starters. 

 

Big names out

Dan Christian was bought for a whopping US$900,000 by Chargers in 2011, but that didn’t seem to have paid dividends last year. Christian played less than half of his team’s matchers and proved expensive with the ball. He was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for this season, for US$100,000. 

 

Below the radar

Amit Mishra, the legspinner, has not played for India since August 2011 but has done well for Haryana of late. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament, he picked up 10 wickets in five games at 10.80, conceding just six an over. Together with McCullum, he is one of two specialist spinners likely to get a full spell and has warmed up well for the IPL this season. 

 

Availability

Sangakkara and Perera will miss the Sunrisers’ game in Chennai on April 25. Should Sunrisers qualify for the knockouts, it remains to be seen if the current Tamil Nadu government makes an exception for those matches vis-à-vis the participation of Sri Lankan players. There is a possibility McCullum might miss the latter stages of the tournament, as New Zealand are scheduled to tour England then, with the first Test beginning on May 16.

‘Spirit of cricket won’t be curtailed by such prejudice’ – Sangakkara

 

Kumar Sangakkara: “Had it been a nation versus nation issue then Sri Lankan players would not have been here” Manoj Ridimahaliyadda

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, has said the decision to exclude Sri Lankan players from the IPL matches in Chennai will not “curtail” the spirit of cricket. The players, he said, continue to feel “very welcome” in other parts of India.

“Politics in this case has restricted our presence, our belief to play in every part of India. But I don’t think sports and spirit of cricket is ever going to be curtailed by such prejudice,” Sangakkara told PTI. “The build-up has been different and difficult for Sri Lankan players. But at the end of the day they are here to play IPL.”

“The Sri Lankan Cricket Board has made it clear that no Sri Lankan players will be [playing] in Chennai. [But] India is much more than Chennai and Tamil Nadu, and I think the rest of India has been very welcoming of us.”

The IPL’s governing council decided that the matches in Chennai will not feature any Sri Lankan cricketers or match officials, following growing political tensions, stemming from the treatment of certain ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Responding to comments from former players stating that the Sri Lankans should boycott the IPL due to the restrictions, Sangakkara said: “It has been a divisive issue back home as well. But this is not a nation versus nation issue. It’s only a state… and I don’t think it is the entire state [Tamil Nadu].

“So, we’ve got to put it in the right perspective. Foreign policies are not going to be dictated by that and had it been a nation versus nation issue then Sri Lankan players would not have been here.”

Sunrisers name Helmot as assistant coach

	Simon Helmot will assist Tom Moody at Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad have made four additions to their support staff by naming Simon Helmot their assistant coach, Jade Roberts their trainer, Theo Kapakoulakis their physio and Sankapani their team manager.

Helmot, 41, is the coach of Victoria Bushrangers in the Ryobi One-Day Cup, Australia‘s domestic one-day competition, and of Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League. He began his coaching career at the age of 25 and also coached the Australia A side which toured India in 2008. Roberts, also from Australia, is Sri Lanka’s trainer since 2007 and has worked at the Queensland Academy of Sport.

The appointments come a couple of weeks after former Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis was signed as the bowling consultant by Sunrisers who also have Tom Moody as their head coach, and Kris Srikkanth and VVS Laxman as their team mentors. Some of the star players in the franchise include Dale Steyn and Kumar Sangakkara.