IPL 2013: Sunrisers Hyderabad defy predictions in debut season

If, at the start of Pepsi IPL 2013, anyone had suggested that Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad would be doing battle in the Eliminator by finishing third and fourth respectively at the end of the league phase, he would have been told, not too politely, to get his 'head checked'.

Both low-budget teams, both largely bereft of superstar cricketers - with due respect to Kumar Sangakkara, Dale Steyn, Shane Watson and Rahul Dravid, among others - and therefore both flying a bit under the radar, Rajasthan and Hyderabad have been the success stories of IPL VI, their Eliminator clash in Delhi a perfect illustration of the spirit and spunk within the sides.

The Sunrisers made their IPL debut a memorable one, stacking up 10 wins in the league phase including seven from eight games at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, which was once the 'unlucky' home ground of the now defunct Deccan Chargers franchise. Their USP was their wonderful bowling attack, spearheaded by Dale Steyn and boasting the X factor in the shape of two leg-spinners, Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma, as well as a host of internationals in Ishant Sharma, Darren Sammy and Thisara Perera.

Auction coup: Relatively thin on the batting front, particularly with JP Duminy being ruled out of the entire season through injury, Hyderabad resisted the temptation to procure batsmen, instead going for the allround skills of Sammy and Perera, both handy medium pacers, brilliant strikers of the ball and excellent fielders. Neither man was expensive, but Sammy and Perera were more than value for money, picking up crucial wickets and coming up with blistering cameos. Additionally, Hyderabad also bought Karan Sharma in the off-season, and the Railways leggie didn't disappoint, spinning a wonderful web alongside the more versatile and experienced Mishra.

Bowling brilliance: Last season, Deccan Chargers were light on both batting and bowling, what with Ishant ruled out for the entire season, and no Karan, Sammy or Perera in the squad. Steyn and Mishra carried the attack on their shoulders manfully but were often fighting solitary, losing battles. This time, with Ishant available and bowling exceedingly well for the most part, and Sammy and Perera injecting accuracy and enterprise, Hyderabad were emboldened enough to field both their leggies in the playing XI. To consistently field two spinners of any ilk in a Twenty20 competition calls for guts; to include two leggies was a bold, revolutionary move and it paid handsome dividends. Mishra had 21 wickets from 17 games at an economy rate of 6.35, Karan picked up 11 wickets but only went at 6.60 runs an over. Steyn took 19 wickets and only conceded 5.66 an over. With Perera (19 wickets), Ishant (15) and Sammy (8) all in wicket-taking mode, Hyderabad somehow found the wherewithal to defend low scores, a legacy of an ordinary batting season.

The Uppal strip: Steyn might have secretly hoped for a quick, pacy track with plenty of bounce, but he was nevertheless very happy bowling at Uppal, with its up-and-down bounce and sluggishness playing right into the hands of Hyderabad's bowing attack. In their very first game, they only made 126 against Pune Warriors India but defended it tigerishly to win by 22 runs, setting the stage for a season of scrappy cricket with victories earned through spirit and character rather than sustained, overwhelming brilliance. Teams coming to Uppal knew they were in for a fight. Only Chennai Super Kings conquered the conditions - in the best batting surface at the venue all tournament - but otherwise, the Hyderabad bowlers winkled out the rest as much with their intelligence and understanding of the conditions, as with their skills.

The captaincy conundrum: Kumar Sangakkara - the designated skipper who featured in only nine of 17 games - and Cameron White played a game of musical chairs when it came to the captaincy but remarkably, that didn't affect the team's morale at all. The back-room staff of Tom Moody (coach), Waqar Younis (bowling coach), K Srikkanth (mentor and strategic analyst) and VVS Laxman (mentor) ensured that the dressing-room atmosphere was relaxed and pressure-free, and Sangakkara and White complemented each other brilliantly, with support from Sammy, who led the West Indies to the World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka last year. It was cohesion and team spirit at its best, as Hyderabad defied all odds and exceeded all expectations by winning through to the playoffs.

Batting blues: It was always on the cards that at some stage or the other, their batting would let Hyderabad down, and that's precisely what happened in the Eliminator when they managed only 132. Shikhar Dhawan missed the first seven games with a fractured finger but still finished the leading run-getter with 311 runs, while of the rest, only Parthiv Patel (294), G Hanuma Vihari (241), Perera (233) and White (209) topped 200 runs. Vihari, still only 19, won two Man-of-the-Match awards but only scored his runs at 86.69 runs per 100 balls faced, an unacceptable strike rate when Hyderabad travelled to better batting strips. With Hyderabad, one suspected that in a crunch game, the batsmen would leave their bowlers with too much to do, and their worst fears materialised in the Eliminator, but that should not take the gloss off what, for the most part was a wonderfully entertaining campaign.