Put into bat, all the Lions batsmen, except for Aaron Finch (51 not out) struggled as the visitors posted a small total at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal.
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.
For Hyderabad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman grabbed two wickets apiece while Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques took a wicket each.
The Lions began with one of the slowest starts ever in the IPL and then slumped to 25 for 3 inside powerplay overs. Openers Dwayne Smith (1) and Brendon McCullum (7) struggled to get off the blocks as the first Lions' run came after 13 dot balls with Bhuvneshwar and Nehra bowling a maiden over 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.
After hitting a six and a four off Bhuvneshwar, the Lions captain fell to a return catch to the same bowler, leaving his side at 24 for 2 in five overs.
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.