IPL 2018: Krishnappa Gowtham the bowler now makes his presence felt

PTI

Rajasthan's Krishnappa Gowtham continues to impress in IPL 2018.

In Rajasthan's last match against Mumbai, Gowtham had smashed 33 not out off 11 balls towards the end of the match to pull off a great heist and on Sunday against Hyderabad again proved his indispensability, although this time with the ball.

After Hyderabad decided to bat at Jaipur, the visitors' top-order came into its own with opener Alex Hales and No.3 Kane Williamson scoring 45 and 63 respectively. However, both found it difficult to get going against Gowtham and Hales even fell to him.

The off-spinner finished with an IPL-best 2/18 in his four overs to help Rajasthan get back into the contest as SRH finished their innings on 151/7. Ten of his 24 deliveries were dots, highlighting his dominance a great deal.  

He broke the 92-run stand between Hales and Williamson and SRH's innings kind of fell apart after that as they couldn't get the late flourish they so desperately needed. 

Talking about his exploits with the bat in the team's last match... Chasing 168 to win against Mumbai, Rajasthan's chase was in bad shape at 125/6 in 17.1 overs when Gowtham went berserk. As Rajasthan fans' hopes were dwindling, the Karnataka allrounder took a six and a four off Mustafizur Rahman's last two balls of the 18th over. 

The 29-year-old continued his assault and in the next over bowled by Jasprit Bumrah, who had back-to-back wickets in his previous over to leave Rajasthan reeling, he unleashed two smashing boundaries. In all, 18 runs came from the seven-ball over. 

Needing 10 runs in the last over, Rajasthan were dealt a big blow when Jofra Archer, who had taken a four off Bumrah in the previous over, fell off the first ball from Hardik Pandya. Gowtham who had crossed over to the other end as Archer started his walk back to the dug-out then hit a four and a six in the space of three balls to lead Rajasthan to a big heist with two balls to go and three wickets in hand. 

What a find he has been for Rajasthan, hasn't he?