Hyderabad: Another power-packed batting performance from the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) helped them chase down 215 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and notch up their eighth win in Match 69 of the TATA IPL 2024 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Abhishek Sharma led SRH’s recovery, after losing Travis Head off the first ball of the innings, by smashing 66 off 28 balls. He added 72 runs off just 30 balls with Rahul Tripathi, who started the counter-attack and hit a breezy 33 off 18 balls. It set the platform. Nitish Reddy (37 off 25) and Heinrich Klaasen (42 off 26) then put SRH in command with some powerful hitting before Abdul Samad and Sanvir Singh took SRH past the finish line with five balls to spare. Earlier, a fantastic comeback in the slog overs helped SRH restrict PBKS to 214/5 after they were cruising at 151/1
Defending 215, Impact Player Arshdeep Singh provided PBKS with a superb start as he cleaned up Travis Head with a beauty off the first ball of the innings.
Rahul Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma went on a counter-attack. Tripathi started it off, getting off the mark with a four. He took on Rishi Dhawan in the second over, hitting a couple of fours and six to take 16 off it. Abhishek went after Arshdeep in the next over, smacking two sixes and a four as the pair took SRH to 50 at the end of four overs. The pair added 72 runs before Harshal Patel’s slower ball brought an end to Tripathi’s counter-attacking 33-run knock. Harshal bounced back really well after being hit for two sixes and a four in the over.
Abhishek Sharma, thought, continued playing some exquisite shots and brought up his fifty in style, off just 21 balls, with two consecutive fours Harshal. Abhishek brought up the 50-run stand with Nitish Reddy in style with a six off Harpreet Brar and followed it with another on off the next ball as SRH reached 129/2 at the halfway mark.
With another partnership flourishing, Jitesh brought on Shashank Singh into the attack and he struck first ball to get the big wicket of Abhishek Sharma (66 off 28), caught at deep point. The wicket wouldn’t stop SRH though, as Nitish and Heinrich Klaasen went on a six-hitting spree, thumping four sixes off two overs. Harshal then came back and stopped the juggernaut to have Nitish Reddy caught in the deep on 37(25). PBKS could have had Shahbaz in the next over but Harshal dropped him at deep square leg. The 47-run stand between Nitish and Klaasen, however, had put SRH in the driver’s seat.
With 33 needed off 30, it was SRH’s game to lose. They lost Shahbaz and Klassen in the process, but there was no panic as Abdul Samad and Sanvir Singh chased the target down in the last over to win it by four wickets. Sanvir finished things off with a four as SRH went second in the table with 17 points.
Earlier, Jitesh Sharma, who was leading the Punjab Kings for the first time in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran, won the toss and elected to bat.
PBKS got off to a solid start as openers Prabhsimran Singh and Atharva Taide put on 61/0 in the Powerplay. The duo hit some attractive strokes and what stood out was their hitting straight down the ground in the ‘V’. The pair hit eight fours and two sixes in the Powerplay with Taide finishing the Powerplay with a thumping six over wide long on.
The duo carried forward the momentum post the powerplay and took the score to 97/0 from 9 overs. Cummins then brought back T Natarajan in the 10th over and he finally brought a breakthrough, having Taide 46(27) caught at backward point.
Prabhsimran Singh then brought up his fifty off 34 balls in the next over. His second of the season. He, along with Rilee Rossouw, kept the boundaries flowing. They went after Nitish Reddy and accumulated 20 off the 12th over. The pair brought up the 50-run stand off just 26 balls and PBKS’ 150 in the 14th over.
In a desperate need for wicket again, Cummins brought back Vijayakanth Viyaskanth into the attack, and the spinner answered his captain’s call with the big wicket of Prabhsimran with Heinrich Klaasen taking an excellent catch. Prabisimran missed his swing and the ball popped up, seemingly brushing his glove, Klaasen was quick to run forward and pluck a diving catch. Prabhsimran reviewed it, but unsuccessfully.
That wicket turned it around for SRH and sparked a collapse. Nitish Reddy produced a brilliant athletic fielding effort off his own bowling to run out Shashank Singh. Another one followed as Rossouw (49 off 24) holed out to long on off Cummins, falling one short of his fifty. Sanvir Singh produced a brilliant catch running backwards at extra cover to send back Ashutosh Sharma off the bowling of Natarajan. PBKS went from 151/1 in the 15th over to 187/5 in the 19th. Captain Jitesh Sharma the provided the crucial late surge and took PBKS past 200 with a crucial little cameo of 32* off 15 balls. He smashed two sixes and a four off the last over from Nitish Reddy as the visitors finished on 214/5. Arshdeep Singh replaced Ashutosh Sharma as the Impact Player at the start of the second innings.
