Eventually it was more than enough to secure victory for Hyderabad. Much depends on the red-hot form of Warner, and it takes some serious effort to keep hitting the ball like he is at the moment, just so that he can lead from the front. Bhuvneshwar, who bagged four in Sunrisers’ previous outing, almost sent Manan Vohra packing off the second ball of the innings, when an outside edge fell just short of Shikhar Dhawan in the slips. He’s targeting a return to the Sunrisers Hyderabad side for May 6. Despite missing Ashish Nehra, they have made important strides bowling first, thanks to Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-37) finding form. At 90 for 2 in 10 overs, Sunrisers were still in a comfortable position but two swift breakthroughs gave their opposition hope.
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The way Mustafizur Rahman has operated in the Indian Premier League 2016 so far, his left-arm seam bowling can be easily compared with that of a puppeteer in complete control of his strings at a puppet show. Then, Warner held him off until the latter half of the innings.
Next up, Eion Morgan (25) stayed calm to help team close in on the target after Dhawan was dismissed in 14th over. Earlier, SRH skipper David Warner won the toss and elected to field first, as KXIP posted an average total of 143 for the loss of six wickets, coutesy of Shaun Marsh’s 40, while Moises Henriques and Mustafizur Rahman claimed a couple of wickets each.
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Rahman (2-9) trapped Marsh lbw in the 14th over but Axar Patel (36 not out) smashed a six in the 15th over, bringing up the team hundred with five overs to go. As the boundaries were starting to dry up, the Sunrisers skipper took the aerial route, hitting the ball straight to his opposite number at long off. Sunrisers committed harakiri, as Aditya Tare was run out first ball. But Punjab from there on received two quick blows in one over with Henriques dismissing hard-hitters David Miller (9) followed by Glenn Maxwell (1) in the 10th over to have the visitors in a spot of bother at 65-4. Playing at home, an upbeat Sunrisers Hyderabad will look for their third win on-the-trot tonight. It isn’t unheard of for franchises to change captains mid-way through the IPL to save the season, and Kings XI have nine matches to do that as they languish at the bottom of the pile. Their only win has come against Rising Pune Supergiants but that’s been the only hurrah for a side that has decent quality in both batting and bowling departments.
