Sunrisers Hyderabad Cricket Team Guide
Situated in the central-southern stretch of Indian Peninsula in the state of Telangana, Sunrisers Hyderabad are one of the franchise cricket teams that participates in the Indian Premier League.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Cricket Team Background
Unlike other IPL giants such as the Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad weren’t actually one of the founding members of the league back in 2008, instead joining 4 years later in 2012. The team specifically is often regarded as one of the top bowling sides within the IPL, building a reputation over the years of deafening low batting totals. Sunrisers Hyderabad are often referred to as the ‘Orange Army’ or the ‘Eagles’, with this being attributed to their bright orange jerseys and iconic eagle crest.
Where Do Sunrisers Hyderabad Play?
With a capacity of 55,000, the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium is the home ground of Sunrisers Hyderabad. The ground was originally home to the Deccan Chargers who the Sunrisers replaced in the IPL in 2012, with the ground also hosting a number of international games for the India national cricket team.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Players
Upon joining the IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad retained 20 of the players of the Decan Chargers, whilst also bringing in big names such as South African cricket team star Quinton de Kock. Indian opening batter Shikhar Dhawan was one player who was a standout in the teams formative years with the same applying to Bhuvneshwar Kumar who was the first to take over 100 wickets for the team.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have had their fair share of overseas talent too, with Afghanistan cricket team allrounder Rashid Khan, Australia cricket team opening batter David Warner, New Zealand’s Kane WIlliamson and England’s Jonny Bairstow all taking to the pitch for the side over the years.
Memorable Games For The Sunrisers Hyderabad Cricket Team
The 2016 season of the IPL will go down in history for Sunrisers Hyderabad as this is the year they took home their maiden championship. By the end of the regular season matches, the team stood in 3rd place after picking up 8 wins from their 14 matches. This saw them progress to an Eliminator where they would face off against the Kolkata Knight Riders.This was a close match where Yuvraj Singh put up 44 runs, the most in the match, to see the Orange Army win by 22 runs.
From here, Sunrisers Hyderabad would go on to defeat the Gujarat Lions by 4 wickets in a second qualifier before progressing to the finals in which they would face off against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Sunrisers won the toss, choosing to take to the crease first. The batting side managed to amass 208/7, with David Warner getting 69 runs from 38 balls.
The response from the Royal Challengers was strong, with the bowlers of the Sunrisers Hyderabad struggling against West Indies cricket team icon Chris Gayle. He put up a match best of 76 runs from 38 balls, however, key wickets from Ben Cutting saw the Sunrisers clinch victory by just 8 runs.
Rivals Of The Sunrisers Hyderabad Cricket Team
Many would consider either Royal Challengers Bangalore or the Kolkata Knight Riders to be the main rivals of Sunrisers Hyderabad, with these two sides having many fierce match ups over the seasons.