page_title: Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018
section_title: April
hierarchical_section_title: Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018 / Indian Premier League / Season summary / April
caption_attribution_description: English: SRH fans while an ipl match
context_page_description: The SunRisers Hyderabad are a franchise cricket team based in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, which plays in the Indian Premier League. They were one of the eight teams that competed in the 2018 Indian Premier League, making their sixth appearance in all IPL tournaments. The team was captained by Kane Williamson and coached by Tom Moody with Simon Helmot as assistant coach, Muttiah Muralitharan as bowling coach and V. V. S. Laxman as mentor.
  They began their season by winning their opening fixture on 9 April, and went on to become the first team to qualify for the play-offs on 10 May. They beat the Kolkata Knight Riders in Qualifier 2 to reach the Final where they lost to the Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets to finish the season as runners-up. Williamson won the Orange Cap for scoring 735 runs in the IPL season.
context_section_description: On 9 April, the SunRisers started their season campaign with a nine-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals. Williamson, the SunRisers' new captain, elected to field first after winning toss and the bowlers justified his call with Billy Stanlake making the batsmen struggle with his awkward bounce while spin twins Rashid Khan and Shakib Al Hasan further applied brakes in middle overs. Siddharth Kaul also impressed with two scalps while ensuring that he did not leak any runs in the death overs to restrict the Royals to 125/9 in 20 overs. Wriddhiman Saha opened with Shikhar Dhawan to start the chase for the SunRisers but fell while attempting to loft over midfield. Dhawan, who got a reprieve after Ajinkya Rahane dropped his catch at first slip on zero, slammed a 33-ball half-century to complete the SunRisers' chase with Williamson providing a stable stand, playing his natural game and "relying on pure timing and hand-eye coordination".
  On 12 April, the SunRisers eked out a hard-fought win over the Mumbai Indians in a last-ball thriller. Earlier, Williamson won the toss and elected to field. Sandeep Sharma was handed his debut for the SunRisers, replacing the injured Bhuvneshwar, and started troubling the Mumbai Indians batsmen right from the start, but it was Stanlake who succeeded in dismissing Rohit Sharma. Later, Kaul dismissed Ishan Kishan and Evin Lewis inside power-play. The Mumbai Indians were slowly choked in the middle overs by Rashid, who bowled 18 dot balls and took wicket of Ben Cutting. The Mumbai Indians' batsmen also played some reckless shots losing wickets which finally saw them finishing the innings with 147/8. With a low total to chase, Dhawan played aggressively and laid the platform for the chase stitching a 62-run partnership with Saha in just 6.5 overs. But the introduction of Mayank Markande saw the SunRisers slip from 73/1 to 107/5. Yusuf Pathan and Deepak Hooda brought the SunRisers to within 12 runs of victory before Jasprit Bumrah and Mustafizur Rahman delivered two vital strikes each. Off the final ball, Stanlake hoicked the slower delivery to the midwicket fence to script a one-wicket win.
  The SunRisers completed a hat-trick of wins in the season with a five-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders on 14 April. Williamson once again won the toss and elected to field. Chris Lynn built a 39-run partnership with Nitish Rana after Bhuvneshwar removed Robin Uthappa early on. But the SunRisers pulled the match back with Stanlake cramping Rana. Sunil Narine struggled at No.4 while an excellent catch by Manish Pandey sent Andre Russell back. Bhuvneshwar removed Dinesh Karthik in 19th over with the SunRisers restricting the Knight Riders to 138/8. Saha provided a brisk start to the SunRisers but the innings suffered a small collapse in the middle when spin was introduced. They recovered through a 59-run partnership between Williamson and Shakib with the former completing his half-century. In the end, Pathan finished the chase with two boundaries and a six to register the SunRisers' first win ever at the Eden Gardens.
  On 19 April, the SunRisers lost their first match of the season to the Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs. Williamson lost the toss and was put to field. The Kings XI started batting cautiously and Chris Gayle was initially dropped on 14 off Rashid by Saha - a difficult chance. Later, Gayle stopped his limits and launched into Chris Jordan and later Rashid scoring sixes. Though Gayle slowed in the middle when the Kings XI lost two quick wickets in succession, he again targeted Rashid hammering four sixes in an over to complete his century and helped the Kings XI finish strongly at 193/3. The SunRisers suffered a jolt early in the chase when Dhawan was forced to retire hurt after taking a blow to his elbow. They also lost Saha and Pathan early to Mohit Sharma's varying pace. Despite a 76-run stand between Williamson and Pandey, they struggled to catch up with the required run-rate. After losing Williamson and Hooda to Andrew Tye's knuckle balls, the SunRisers could manage only 178/4 in 20 overs.
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caption: SRH fans while an IPL match in Hyderabad
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