It’s usually box office when Travis Head and Mohammed Siraj face each other and their latest contest in the Indian Premier League was no exception.
The duo notoriously clashed in the Adelaide Test in December 2024 when the Australian batter came out on top, but this time in Ahmedabad the Indian bowler won the duel.
Head flashed at the first two balls Siraj pushed across the left-hander, then was discombobulated by one he brought back. The fourth ball again came in and Head finally got bat on ball, but it flew off a leading edge to be taken at third man.
It was the tenth time Siraj had dismissed Head in all formats, with the batter averaging 29.80 against him.
The dismissal set the tone for what followed on Tuesday (local time) as Head’s Sunrisers Hyderabad were dismissed for 86, their lowest total in the IPL, losing to Gujarat Titans by a whopping 82 runs.
Siraj ended with 1-11 off three overs with Kagisho Rabada (3-28 off four) and Jason Holder (3-20 off four) charging through the opening he had created.
The result was a disappointment for Sunrisers skipper Pat Cummins who had led by example, finishing top scorer with 19 to back up his own impressive bowling stint of 1-20 off four.
When Cummins finished his last over, the 15th of the innings, Titans were 3-114 with set batters Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar having opted to see him off.
The former was soon out for 61 off 44 balls but the latter went on to make 50 off 33 as the home team added 54 off the last five overs to reach 5-168.
On what Cummins described as a “tricky” pitch it added to the pressure on the visitors, and they failed to deal with it. At the end of the six-over powerplay they were 4-34 and staring at defeat.
“They bowled really well,” said Cummins. “I was pretty happy when we walked off (after bowling). It’s a pretty tricky wicket and you maybe try and look at ways to get through that opening spell but they deserve a bit of credit. That’s as a good a T20 bowling display as you’ll see.”
On the low score he added: “This happens in T20 cricket. We still have two games left to qualify. We’ll put this behind us pretty quickly.”
Titans are now top of the table after five successive wins and all but sure to qualify for the playoffs. Sunrisers are third, still well-placed but needing to win at least one of their two remaining regular games.
