After Khaleel Ahmed and Abhishek Sharma decimated opponents with their fine bowling performance, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener Jonny Bairstow smashed a fifty to steer the David Warner-led side to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Punjab Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday. This was the first victory for SRH after losing three straight games in this season’s IPL.
A brilliant bowling effort from Khaleel and Abhishek had helped SRH restrict Punjab Kings to a paltry 120 in 19.4 overs. In response, SRH (121/1) chased down the target with eight balls to spare, thanks to a dominating batting performance by Bairstow.
David Warner and Bairstow (63*) started off the chase in dominating manner, taking SRH to 50 in style in six overs. In the next four overs, Warner slowed down a bit but Bairstow continued his onslaught and smashed timely boundaries. While Warner did try to up the ante, Fabian Allen removed the SRH skipper in the 11th over to give Punjab Kings a glimmer of hope. But Bairstow and Kane Williamson didn’t allow Punjab Kings to capitalise as the duo stitched a 48-run partnership to take SRH over the line quite comfortably in the 19th over.
Earlier, after opting to bat first, Punjab Kings got off to bad start as they lost skipper K.L. Rahul in the fourth over. Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal then stitched a partnership but Khaleel Ahmed ended Mayank’s stay in the seventh over.
Deepak Hooda and Moises Henriques tried to revive Punjab’s innings, but without much success as Abhishek sent them back to see Punjab lose six wickets with just 82 runs on board. Shahrukh did manage to take Punjab past 100-run mark, but the right-handed batsman wasn’t able to convert it into the big one.
In the final two overs, Punjab Kings picked 10 runs to give SRH a 121-run target.
Brief Scores: Punjab Kings 120 (Shahrukh Khan 22, Mayank Agarwal 22; Khaleel Ahmed 3-21); SRH 121/1 (Jonny Bairstow 63*; Fabian Allen 1-22)