On a pleasant Saturday evening, preceded by spells of unseasonal rains through the day, Sunrisers Hyderabad recorded a 30-run win over Kings XI Punjab in an IPL VI match and kept its hopes alive for a berth in the playoffs.
SRH rode on its impressive teamwork. The touring team showed its desperation and found performers who not only bailed the side out of difficult situations but also contributed at crucial junctures.
After putting SRH in, KXIP bowlers stuck to their task well. Harmeet Singh Bansal provided the breakthrough by removing the dangerous looking Shikhar Dhawan off his first ball.
But KXIP’s hero of the evening was the young Sandeep Sharma, the under-19 World Cup winner. Making his IPL debut, the rookie stuck to a good line and surprised the SRH batsmen with variations in length.
Hanuma Vihari, who slashed a wide delivery straight to David Miller at point, was Sandeep’s first victim. In his next over, the teenager delivered a double blow.
He trapped Cameron White, replacing Kumar Sangakkara as the SRH captain, in front of the wicket and broke through Biplab Samantray’s poor defence off consecutive balls.
Soon, Darren Sammy failed to read Piyush Chwala’s googly as SRH was reduced to 52 for five in the ninth over.
After playing some flashy shots early in his innings, man-of-the-match Parthiv Patel (61 off 47 balls) held onto one end and scripted SRH’s revival. He built a much-needed 42-run partnership with Karan Sharma off 37 balls.
Along with Thisara Perera, Parthiv hammered the home bowlers all around the park to gather 48 runs off just 25 balls and help SRH register a challenging total (150 for seven) in conditions conducive for the pacers.
In reply, KXIP, despite losing Mandeep Singh in the first over, was cruising smoothly as Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh shouldered the responsibility. Gilchrist entertained the weekend crowd with some vintage stuff while punishing an erring Ishant Sharma on the off side.
Sammy, however, gave an unexpected twist to the plot by accounting for Marsh and Gilchrist. Marsh perished to a rash shot as Perera took a spectacular catch at long on. Then the KXIP skipper dragged the ball onto his stumps off the very next ball as Sammy celebrated with his customary dance.
The two big wickets, however, had not satiated the West Indian’s appetite as he had David Miller caught by White at covers and pushed the host on the back foot.
Luke Pomersbach and Rajagopal Sathish provided some resistance, but it fizzled out as KXIP slumped to its lowest total (120 for nine) of the season.
Scoreboard:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Parthiv Patel (run out) 61 (47b, 5x4, 1x6), Shikhar Dhawan c&b Harmeet 15 (14b, 2x4), Hanuma Vihari c Miller b Sandeep 5 (7b, 1x4), Cameron White lbw b Sandeep 10 (8b, 2x4), Biplab Samantray b Sandeep 0 (1b), Darren Sammy lbw b Chawla 0 (3b), Karan Sharma c Gilchrist b Awana 22 (18b, 2x4, 1x6), Thisara Perera (not out) 32 (19b, 2x4, 2x6), Dale Steyn (not out) 1 (3b); Extras (b-2, lb-1, w-1): 4, Total (for seven wickets in 20 overs): 150.
Fall of wickets: 1-28 (Dhawan), 2-33 (Vihari), 3-51 (White), 4-51 (Samantray), 5-52 (Sammy), 6-94 (Karan), 7-142 (Parthiv).
Kings XI Punjab bowling: Praveen Kumar 4-0-32-0, Parvinder Awana 4-0-35-1, Harmeet Singh Bansal 4-0-39-1, Sandeep Sharma 4-0-21-3, Piyush Chawla 4-0-20-1.
Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist b Sammy 26 (22b, 4x4), Mandeep Singh c White b Steyn 0 (2b), Shaun Marsh c Perera b Sammy 18 (20b, 3x4), Luke Pomersbach (not out) 33 (40b, 1x4, 1x6), David Miller c White b Sammy 6 (7b, 1x4), Rajagopal Sathish 25 (18b, 1x4, 2x6), Piyush Chawla c Dhawan b Perera 0 (3b), Praveen Kumar b Steyn 1 (3b), Harmeet Singh Bansal (run out) 3 (4b), Parvinder Awana c Ishant b Sammy 0 (1b), Sandeep Sharma (not out) 0 (1b); Extras (b-5, lb-1, w-2): 8; Total (for nine wickets in 20 overs): 120.
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Mandeep), 2-45 (Marsh), 3-45 (Gilchrist), 4-61 (Miller), 5-102 (Sathish), 6-103 (Chawla), 7-107 (Praveen), 8-112 (Harmeet), 9-119 (Awana).
Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling: Dale Steyn 4-0-20-2, Ishant Sharma 3-0-22-0, Thisara Perera 4-0-19-1, Hanuma Vihari 2-0-5-0, Darren Sammy 4-0-22-4, Karan Sharma 1-0-6-0, Amit Mishra 2-0-20-0.
