Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Perera delivers as Hyderabad beat T&T - CLT20




CLT20, MOHALI — Sunrisers chase down 160 in the final over after Narine's brilliant bowling.

Yahoo! Cricket

Perera's unbeaten 57 revived Hyderabad after Narine's 4-9.

MOHALI: All-rounder Thisara Perera pulled Sunrisers Hyderabad up to an exciting four-wicket win over Trinidad & Tobago as he helped them complete a dramatic chase at the PCA Stadium on Tuesday night. Having defended 135 in their previous game, Trinidad & Tobago mounted another stiff challenge to guard a much more imposing 160 against the Sunrisers. But the bigger total proved harder to protect.

Perera came to the crease with the Sunrisers needing 90 more to win in 10-odd overs and smashed an unbeaten 57 in just 32 balls, with four sixes and as many fours. He was the ultimate counter to T&T’s spearhead, ‘mystery spinner’ Sunil Narine, who finished with superlative figures of 4-1-9-4, including two wickets in his last over, the 18th of the innings, that brought his team back into reckoning.

Narine, however, couldn't finish the job. For, at the other end of the spectrum, was medium pacer Rayad Emrit who leaked 57 in four overs as Perera, with a little assistance from Karan Sharma (13, 5b), took his team over the line with three balls to spare. The Sri Lankan all-rounder had earlier bowled splendidly to pick up two wickets when T&T batted.

Rocky start

Sunrisers' chase was off to a rocky start. Opener Parthiv Patel (17) was first dropped, then rattled by a strike on the helmet, and finally out on the first delivery bowled by Narine. Shikhar Dhawan (23) was next when he played vapidly back to medium-pacer Navin Stewart for a simple caught and bowled.

The wickets kept tumbling.

JP Duminy (17) was run out – Stewart coming into the picture again with a deadly direct hit from fine-leg – and Narine had Hanuma Vihari (13) stumped to leave Hyderabad struggling on 95/4 in the 14th.

Perera then launched into a magnificent assault on Emrit, mowing the seamer for sixes over mid-wicket. Ravi Rampaul was biffed over the leg-side field, only for Lendl Simmons to tip the ball over the ropes in a valiant attempt to catch it. It all came unstuck for the West Indian side in the 17th over as Emrit leaked 23 runs – a dropped catch of Darren Sammy (15) and a couple of no-balls not helping his cause.

Bravo Bravo

Earlier, Dhawan won the toss and saw his team let him down badly as misfields and dropped catches added at least 20 runs to the total. After opener Lendl Simmons was caught behind off Dale Steyn on the first ball of the innings, the Brian Lara lookalike Darren Bravo (66, 44b) smashed four sixes and five fours, leading from the front in a series of partnerships.

Evin Lewis (22), Jason Mohammed (19) and Denesh Ramdin (21) all assumed a secondary role with Bravo in a particularly destructive frame of mind. He reached his half-century off 37 balls and had guided his side to 100 in the 14th over when he was caught at cover going after Ishant. Tidy bowling by Perera and Sammy (2/21) brought the Sunrisers back into the game, but another cameo, this time by Stewart, pushed the visitors onto a challenging total - albeit not one they were able to defend.

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