Mehul Bhattacharya:
-Punjab Kings:
120/10 (19.4 ovs)
(Shahrukh Khan- 22, Khaleel Ahmed- 3/21)
-Sunrisers Hyderabad
121/1 (18.4 ovs)
(Jonny Bairstow- 63, Fabian Allen- 1/22)
Punjab Kings faced Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) today, in a clash which saw the latter comfortably coast to victory by 9 wickets, with 8 balls to spare. This means that Sunrisers Hyderabad have now registered their first victory in this year’s IPL.
Punjab Kings were the ones to bat first, and got off to a relatively slow start, losing KL Rahul via a catch off a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery in the 4th over. By the time the powerplay came to an end, Punjab stood at 32/1. Mayank Agarwal was dismissed next, with Rashid Khan taking a great catch, and Pooran departed quickly after via a run-out thanks to a direct hit from David Warner. The batsmen struggled to get going against some brilliant bowling by the Hyderabad line-up, with Gayle and Hooda falling to lbw dismissals. The rest of the batsmen couldn’t put up too much of a fight, as Punjab managed to get to a total of 120, losing all their wickets with two balls to spare. Khaleel Ahmed picked up 3 wickets, while Abhishek Sharma picked up 2 for the Sunrisers.
Sunrisers got off to a brilliant start, with some good batting ensuring that they reached 50 runs by the end of the powerplay, without losing any wickets. They looked to have control over the game when batting, and David Warner’s dismissal didn’t do much to change that. The momentum slowed down, but they kept the score trickling, with Jonny Bairstow crossing the 50 mark after having faced 48 balls. In what became a drawn out chase, Punjab were trying to delay the inevitable, as their inability to pick up wickets bugged them throughout the innings. In the end, Sunrisers easily reached the target of 121 with 9 wickets to spare, thanks to some cautious batting from Bairstow and Williamson. Fabian Allen picked up what was the only wicket in the innings.