Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have become the fourth team to reach eight points in the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) with a comfortable 7-wicket victory over Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. After losing their first two games, SRH have made a stunning comeback in the tournament and won their fourth game in a row to climb into the top 4 on the table.
For the sixth time in six matches this season, Kane Williamson won the toss and chose to bowl first. In the absence of Mayank Agarwal; who was ruled due to a toe injury, Shikhar Dhawan was named captain for the game.
Dhawan had a rare poor show with the bat as he departed for just 8 runs in 11 balls. Prabhsimran Singh, who replaced Agarwal in the playing XI, failed to make an impact and walked back to the dressing room after making only 14 runs. Jonny Bairstow also failed to fire against his old team as Jagdeesha Suchith ended his stay on the crease after a knock of 14.
Despite wickets falling around him, Liam Livingstone continues his excellent run of form with his third half-century in four games. The English all-rounder played another flamboyant innings full of some outrageous strokes and made 60 runs in just 33 balls before Bhuvenshwar Kumar dismissed him.
Umran Malik closed the innings in style by bowling a triple-wicket maiden that saw him take the wickets of hard-hitting Odean Smith, Rahul Chahar, and Vaibhav Arora. Umran’s stunning final-over was only the fourth occasion in the history of the IPL that a bowler has bowled a maiden in the final over of the innings. PBKS ended with a score of 151 in their 20 overs with Umran being the pick of the bowlers with a four-wicket spell. Bhuvneshwar took three scalps. T Natarajan and Suchith took one wicket each.
SRH’s chase got off to a poor start with skipper Williamson making just three runs in 9 balls. However, Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi continued their excellent run of form with knocks of 31 and 34 respectively.
Despite the quick dismissals of both batters, ex-PBKS pair of Nicolas Pooran and Aiden Markram ensured SRH got home with ease and completed the victory with 7 balls to spare. Markram made an unbeaten 27-ball 41 while Pooran finished not-out with a score of 35 in 30 balls.
