Gujrat Lions faced the Sunrisers Hyderabad in a contest which would decide which team will take on RCB in the finals. The encounter was going to be a close one as the two teams were equally determined to reach the finals. In such a high-pressure game it was SRH, who won the toss and chose to bowl first.

Mustafizur Rahaman was missing the clash due to a hamstring injury and Trent Boult made his way back to the side at this crucial juncture. GL’s gamble of promoting Eklavya Dwivedi up the order failed miserably as he got out in the first over. The captain followed the suite, as SRH prevented GL’s innings from getting any momentum. Brendon McCullum and Dinesh Karthik stitched a partnership of 44 runs in the recovery mode, but Karthik threw his wicket away going for a haphazard run. Aaron Finch was given a chance early in the innings when Barinder Sran dropped a sitter. But two quick wickets of McCullum and Dwayne Smith put SRH back in control. Finch reached his fifty while Bravo scored a quick fire 20 to propel GL’s score to 162.

It was a tricky chase, as 162 doesn’t look much on board, but on a slow wicket at such a crucial stage, the pressure gets to you. The first to go was Shikhar Dhawan trying to take on McCullum at cover point. Moises Henriques got out to in a tame fashion by providing the fielder at extra cover a simple cash. Soon the rest of the SRH players followed each other one after the other to the dressing room. But SRH had hope as they still had their captain at one end. David Warner looked solid while batting. He looked like a true master class, holding one end and also scoring at a steady rate so that his team doesn’t fall too much behind. First Naman Ojha and then Bipul Sharma provided some much-needed assistance to the captain towards the end. It was Warner who took SRH to victory from almost an impossible situation with a knock of 93 from 58 balls. SRH now take on the RCB in a cracking encounter for the finals.