With as many as three Afghan internationals in their ranks, Gujarat Titans managed to restrict the explosive SRH to 162/8 in Sunday's first IPL encounter at Ahmedabad.
Experienced Mohit Sharma produced a splendid final over, plucking three wickets while giving away just three runs. His four-over spell just leaked 25 runs, while Azmatullah Omarzai, Umesh Yadav, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad picked a wicket each.
For SRH, who registered the highest team total in the history of IPL (277) in their last game against Mumbai Indians, Abdul Samad and Abhishek Sharma scored 29 runs off 14 and 20 deliveries respectively. Heinrich Klaasen (24 off 13), Travis Head (19 off 14) and Aiden Markram (17 off 19) failed to convert the good starts they got into big innings.
SRH were going great guns with 56/1 inside the power-play but the young and experienced Afghan wrist spin duo of Noor (1/32) and Rashid (1/33) turned the match on its head. Noor dismissed the in-form SRH opener Head, while Rashid sent back Klaasen against the run of play.
Rashid also took a brilliant diving catch at the deep to dismiss Aiden Markram as SRH faltered badly at the back end. They managed just 40 runs and lost five wickets in the last five overs.
Mohit then shone at the death, dismissing Shahbaz Ahmed (22) and Washington Sundar (0) off successive balls. He returned impressive figures of 4-0-25-3 as SRH managed just three runs in the last over.
After plundering runs at an astonishing pace in their last game, the Orange Army had little hesitation in opting to bat first and dictate the pace of the game with Travis Head up front.
- With PTI inputs