A sensational partnership by David Warner (52) and Jonny Bairstow (97) on the batting front and a stupendous effort from Rashid Khan (3/12) on the bowling front ensured Sunrisers Hyderabad a big win of 69 runs against Kings XI Punjab. Punjab was never really in the game while chasing the big total of 202. Only Nicholas Pooran (77) gave a strong performance in their team.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s skipper David Warner won the toss and chose to bat. As usual, he opened the innings along with Jonny Bairstow. For the first time in this IPL, we have seen the carnage of vintage Warner and Bairstow. Both of them kept hitting the boundaries right from the beginning. The run rate was never down the 10. In the process, they have also completed their respective half-centuries. Bairstow played a sensational knock while Warner slowed down a bit in the middle-overs. When KXIP was clueless, they got a big breakthrough in the 16th over bowled by Ravi Bishnoi. The young spinner scalped the wickets of both Bairstow and Warner in that over and brought back Punjab into the game. After that, SRH lost wickets like the collapse of a card-pack. Manish Pandey, Abdul Samad, and Priyam Garg just came and left the crease. In the last two overs, Kane Williamson played sensibly and ended SRH’s innings at 201/6.
Punjab got a bad start while chasing this big total. In-form Mayank Agarwal got run-out in the second over due to the miscommunication with Rahul. In the fifth over, Simran Singh got out by a stunning catch taken by Priyam Garg. Right after the power play, Abhishek Sharma dismissed KL Rahul. In the meantime, Nicholas Pooran played a blistering game and scored the fastest fifty of this season. He targetted Abhishek Sharma and Abdul Samad to score big shots. But he didn’t get enough support from the other side. The likes of Glenn Maxwell, Mandeep Singh and Mujeeb Ur Rahman got out without scoring well. Pooran was the only one left to give Punjab the victory. However, he fell in Rashid Khan’s bowling and sealed the match for SRH. Eventually, Punjab ended their game by getting all-out for 132.
Scorecard:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 201/6 (J Bairstow 97, D Warner 52, R Bishnoi 3/29)
Kings XI Punjab: 132 all-out (N Pooran 77, S Singh 11, R Khan 3/12)