IPL 2021 | Sunrisers dismantles Punjab Kings, gets off the mark

Sunrisers Hyderabad made light work of Punjab Kings’ 121-run target, romping home by nine wickets at Chennai’s M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday for its first win of IPL-14.

Positive start

David Warner and Jonny Bairstow got SRH’s chase off to a positive start, racing to 50 for no loss in the six-over PowerPlay, with the latter’s two sixes off Fabian Allen and Moises Henriques the highlights. The duo blunted the PBKS attack with some good running and positive strokeplay.

PBKS captain K.L. Rahul would have hoped his spinners would take control through the middle overs and up the asking rate. But the SRH openers kept the scoreboard ticking with occasional big hits while pinching ones and twos.

Warner added 73 for the first wicket before holing out for a run-a-ball 37. That didn’t deter Bairstow, who hit an unbeaten 63 off 56 balls and in the company of Kane Williamson — who returned after an elbow niggle — saw the team home with eight balls to spare.

Earlier, electing to bat, PBKS openers Rahul and Mayank Agarwal were suffocated by tight bowling. With the wicket dry and offering turn, left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma opened the attack and would have dismissed Agarwal in his first over had Rashid Khan held on to a tough chance at deep mid-wicket.

SRH, though, didn’t have to wait long for its first breakthrough, with Rahul hitting a short-of-a-length delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar straight to Kedar Jadhav — one of three changes made by SRH — at short mid-wicket. Warner gave his bowlers one-over spells in the first six except for Bhuvneshwar, who bowled his three up front.

Rashid made up for his earlier dropped catch immediately after the PowerPlay when he took a sharp catch at mid-wicket to get rid of Agarwal, and off the first ball of the very next over, Nicholas Pooran, batting at No. 4 for the first time this season, was run out without facing a delivery.

Two balls later, Deepak Hooda would have been caught if Siddarth Kaul had been on the fine-leg boundary instead of being well inside it.

Then the spinners took over, and PBKS lost its way further. Rashid trapped Chris Gayle in front with a leg-break before Hooda was given out lbw off Abhishek. The batsman reviewed the decision, but DRS upheld the umpire’s call.

Shahrukh Khan provided some late power hitting, clearing the ropes twice in a 17-ball 22, before being caught off Khaleel Ahmed (three for 21).