Chasing 127 for a win, opener Dhawan dropped anchor as he carried his bat through the innings as the Sunrisers chased down the target with six balls to spare at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Dhawan played second fiddle to his batting partners initially before opening up later on to take his side home. He hit six fours in his solid 40-ball unbeaten innings, including the winning shot which was also a boundary as the Sunrisers reached 129 for 5 in 19 overs.
Pacers Mustafizur Rahman (2/17) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/28) led an impressive bowling show while Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques took a wicket apiece as the Sunrisers bowlers bowled a disciplined line and length. Senior pacer Ashish Nehra (0/23) and Bhuvneshwar bowled a maiden over each as the Lions took 14 balls to score their first run, the most in IPL history.
Sunrisers though made a heavy weather of a small chase as they lost wickets in regular intervals but Dhawan ensured that the home side notched up their fifth win in eight matches and jumped to the fourth spot in the league table with 10 points.
Captain and opener David Warner (24) gave the Sunrisers a rollicking start as he took 16 runs from the second over bowled by Pradeep Sangwan, hitting the bowler for two sixes.
But Warner, who hit a magnificent 92 off 50 balls in Sunrisers' 15-run win over RCB in their last match, did not last long today as he was out in the fourth over off the bowling of Dhawal Kulkarni. Warner mistimed his hit and Praveen Kumar took an easy catch at mid-on. The Sunrisers captain hit one four and two sixes in his 17-ball knock.
Yuvraj Singh came out to play his first match this season but disappointed as he could score just five runs off 14 balls. He fell to Kulkarni with Sangwan taking the catch.
(REOPENS DEL75)
Earlier, the Sunrisers produced a clinical bowling show as they restricted Gujarat Lions to a meagre 126 for 6.
Finch was the only Lions batsman who gave a fight against a disciplined Gujarat bowlers and the Australian, who was dropped on 30 by home side captain David Warner, remained not out on 51 off 42 balls with the help of three fours and a six.
Captain Suresh Raina contributed 20 off 10 balls while Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra scored 18 each.
For Hyderabad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman grabbed two wickets apiece while Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques took a wicket each.
Dwayne Smith's miserable nine-ball innings ended in the third over with Bhuvneshwar inducing an outside edge to short third man Mustafiz who took a chest-high catch.
Raina came out and in complete contrast to his openers, hit a quickfire 20 off just 10 balls before perishing in the fifth over. He struck two exquisite sixes, one each off Nehra and Bhuvneshwar and it briefly looked like the Lions would recover from early jolt and slow scoring rate.
Mustafizur was introduced in the sixth over and he could have have got a wicket in his first ball but Shikhar Dhawan dropped McCullum who was on three then. The Bangladeshi pacer got his man in the same over in the form of Dinesh Karthik (0) with Kane Williamson taking a brilliant catch at backward point. The fielder was, however, not sure whether he took it cleanly or not. But, the TV Umpire ruled it was a catch.
It was left to Dwayne Bravo and Finch to take the Lions to a respectable total and the duo did some repair by stitching 45 runs together before the West Indian all-rounder fell in 15th over off the bowling of Sran.