Sunrisers Hyderabad Seal Play-offs Spot, Thrash Lions By 8 Wickets

Kanpur: Captain and opener David Warner carried his bat through the innings with an unbeaten 69 as Sunrisers Hyderabad thrashed Gujarat Lions by eight wickets to seal a play-offs berth in the Indian Premier League here on Thursday.

Warner shared 133 runs with Vijay Shankar (63 not out) for the unbroken third wicket stand as the Sunrisers chased down the target of 155 with 11 balls to spare by reaching to 158 for 2 in 18.1 overs at the Green Park here. With the win in their last league match, the Sunrisers collected 17 points from 14 matches to seal a knock-out stage berth. This was their eighth win in the tournament. Gujarat Lions have already been eliminated from the race of a play-offs berth.

Earlier, rookie pacer Mohammed Siraz and Afghan wonder kid Rashid Khan effected a batting collapse to skittle out Gujarat Lions for 154 in 19.2 overs after being put into bat. Siraz (4/32 in 4 overs) and Rashid (3/34 in 4 overs) were brilliant in the back-10 as Lions were down in the dumps after a 111-run opening stand between Ishan Kishan (61 off 40 balls) and Dwayne Smith (54 off 33 balls). Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/25) and Siddharth Kaul (1/30) polished off the tail.

But in a baffling collapse, Lions lost all 10 wickets for an addition 49 runs in the last 10 overs after a whopping 105 in the front 10.