Wednesday's match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad proved to be a great match-up in more ways than one.
It was a clash between the two most impressive and consistent teams of IPL 2022 – Gujarat had won six out of seven matches and Hyderabad five in a row heading into the game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Also, it was a face-off between the fastest bowlers in the competition – Umran Malik of Hyderabad and Lockie Ferguson of Gujarat.
Both fast bowlers had hurled the ball at over 150 kph in the competition, with Ferguson nudging ahead with a fastest ball of 153.9 kph compared to Malik's best at 153.3 kph.
A straight shoot-out between the two was always going to be explosive and it was the Indian quick who came out on top.
Malik not only bowled the fastest delivery of the match at 152.8 kph, he also snared five wickets to outbowl his Kiwi counterpart. In fact, Gujarat's Caribbean pacer Alzarri Joseph (150.4kph) was quicker than Ferguson (149.4 kph) on the night, with the latter also proving expensive (0-52).
Gujarat seemed to be cruising in their chase of Hyderabad's total of 195-6, with Wriddhiman Saha (68 off 38 balls) in unforgiving mood.
But the introduction of Malik changed the course of the match. He rattled the stumps of opener Shubman Gill, got captain Hardik Pandya out off a short ball, castled Saha with the quickest ball of the match, and then clean bowled David Miller and Abhinav Manohar to finish with 5-25, which are this seasons's best figures.
However, his hard work went in vain as left-arm seamer Marco Jansen was carted for four sixes in the final over with 22 needed for victory.
Rahul Tewatia (40 from 21 balls) and Rashid Khan (31 off 11) took the chase into the last over and targeted the weakest bowler of the evening.
Tewatia first smashed Jansen over mid-wicket to bring the equation down to 16 from five before Khan sent the seamer over the ropes down the ground as the Titans needed three from the last ball.
A bouncer off the final ball was duly sent over the fine leg boundary to seal a stunning win. Jansen finished with forgettable figures of 0-63.
Earlier, Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram hit fifties before debutant Shashank Singh smashed 25 from six balls to take Hyderabad to 195.
