Sunrisers Hyderabad finally managed to open their account in IPL 2021 as they thrashed Punjab Kings by nine wickets. The struggling Punjab side faced a tough time whilst dealing with the SRH bowlers. David Warner successfully brought Punjab’s innings to an end in 19.4 overs as PBKS managed to post a score of 120 runs.
Punjab Kings won the toss and decided to bat first, confident with their batting lineup to set a big competitive score. However, things didn’t really go according to plan as KL Rahul was dismissed early in the innings. It seemed that Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal were playing in a composed manner until the flow of events was broken by the immediate loss of two wickets at the score of 39.
Nicholas Pooran was yet again failed to deliver, who was sent back to pavilion for a diamond duck after being but run out by David Warner. As the match proceeded, the SRH bowlers strangled Punjab’s batsmen and restricted the flow of runs with Khaleel Ahmed bagging three wickets. Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were unplayable on Wednesday afternoon as they took one wicket each and maintained an amazing economy of 4.25 and 5.33, respectively. Abhishek Sharma too played a key role as he picked up two wickets.
Sunrisers Hyderabad executed the chase calmly, relying more on singles and doubles instead of boundaries. As they seemed to be in no hurry, they maintained a decent run rate with the only aim to win the match after failing to chase modest targets in previous. Although Warner was dismissed after scoring 37 runs, Jonny Bairstow and Kane Williamson made sure that game was wrapped up with ease. The English batsman ended up with 63 runs in 56 deliveries.
SCORECARD:
Punjab Kings: 120/10 (Shahrukh Khan 22(17), Mayank Agarwal 22(25), Khaleel Ahmed (3/21), Abhishek Sharma (2/24))
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 121/1 (Jonny Bairstow 63(56), David Warner 37(37), Fabian Allen (1/22))