Blazing Dhawan guides Sunrisers into main round

Otago Volts also make it through

Shikhar Dhawan continued his blazing form as he led Sunrisers Hyderabad to the main round of Champions League T20 as they crushed Pakistan’s Faisalabad Wolves by seven wickets in their second qualifying round match here on Wednesday.

Indian cricket’s latest batting sensation’s love affair with Mohali continued as he smashed 59 off 50 balls to help Sunrisers cruise to the modest victory target of 128 in only 17.3 overs. Dhawan hit six fours and a six during his match-winning knock.

With back to back victories, Sunrisers joined New Zealand’s Otago Volts in the main draw while Faisalabad Wolves and Kandurata Maroons of Sri Lanka bowed out of the tournament. The last of the double headers in the qualifying round has thus been rendered inconsequential

Dhawan repeatedly pierced the off-side cordon starting with a cracking square cut. He also hit a frontfoot cover drive off pacer Samiullah Khan and a backfoot punch off Saeed Ajmal.

A flurry of boundaries from Dhawan and ably complemented by Parthiv Patel (23) helped the Sunrisers to kill the competition by the end of Powerplay. It looked as if Dhawan started from where he left during his knock of 71 against Kandurata Maroons on Tuesday.

At the end of six overs, Sunrisers were 51 for no loss and the match was all about the two openers matching each other stroke for stroke. A lot was expected off Ajmal but he looked out of sync and both the openers didn’t have any problems in negotiating his bowling.

Finally Wolves got a breakthrough when Patel couldn’t execute a pull-shot perfectly off pacer Ehsan Adil’s bowling. The delivery was short but Parthiv’s pull went straight into the hands of Khurram Manzoor at mid-wicket.

The opening pair put on 69 runs for the first wicket. But Dhawan didn’t face too many problems as he completed his second successive half-century by stepping out to left-arm spinner Imran Khalid and dispatching him to the deep mid-wicket boundary. As if to celebrate the feat, Dhawan stepped out yet again to hit a six off the very next ball.

Khalid had the last laugh as a fast low delivery beat Dhawan to rattle the stumps. However the match as a contest was over by then.Thursday will be a rest day.