The Sunrisers Hyderabad needed to make a statement after the heavy loss against the Chennai Super Kings in their last game in IPL 2013.
Well, playing away at Mohali against a Kings XI Punjab side charged up and desperately needing a win to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Sunrisers put in a brilliant all-round effort to pick up an impressive 30-run victory.
With the top order struggling for the umpteenth time, the Sunrisers batting looked like disappointing yet again, only for Parthiv Patel (61) and Thisara Perera (32) to guide the away side to 150 for seven.
Kings XI just could not come together as a batting unit, managing just 120 for nine in their 20 overs, thanks kargely to a four-wicket haul from Darren Sammy, to give the Sunrisers a comprehensive 30-run win.
The Hyderabad side keep themselves very much in the running for the playoffs with their eighth win in 13 games, while the Kings XI's slim chances of finishing in the final four pretty much ended with the heavy defeat.
Kings XI never really looked like making a fist of the chase, with opener Mandeep Singh losing his wicket in the first over.
The Indian youngster got a leading edge while looking to play the ball to the onside, with Cameron White completing the catch at cover off Dale Steyn.
Shaun Marsh came in at No.3 and along with Adam Gilchrist looked really good, with the duo putting on a nice little partnership of 44 runs from 38 deliveries. The two Australians looked to be taking Kings XI closer to the target, when Darren Sammy came up trumps in the eight over.
Shaun Marsh first top-edged one to Thisara Perera off the West Indian's first delivery, before castling Gilchrist off the very next delivery as the Sunrisers wrested back control.
Kings XI's last real hope was David Miller, but the South African could not pull another rabbit out of his hat, with Sammy (four for 22) again picking up the crucial wicket off his next over.
From there, the Sunrisers strangled the Kings XI batting, with Rajagopal Satish and Luke Pomersbach unable to keep up with the asking rate.
Satish, Piyush Chawla and Praveen Kumar fell in the space of eight balls as Kings XI's chances of making the playoffs fizzled out.
Earlier, the Sunrisers Hyderabad did really well to get from a precarious position to a total, which was definitely defendable on a difficult wicket.
Shikhar Dhawan lived a charmed life before eventually seeing his 14-ball 15-run stay ended by Harmeet Singh, with the medium pacer taking a nice catch off his own bowling.
Hanuma Vihari then walked back to the pavilion after hitting a cut shot straight to David Miller at point, with teenager Sandeep Sharma picking up his first wicket.
It would get a lot better for the youngster, though, with the fast bowler accounting for Cameron White and Biplab Samantray off consecutive deliveries a couple of overs later.
White was the first to go, caught in front of the stumps by an incoming delivery. Samantray did not have a clue facing his first ball, with Sandeep (three for 21) finding the gap between bat and pad to knock down the stumps.
Darren Sammy, often the Sunrisers' saviour in IPL 2013, could not bail his team out again, with Piyush Chawla trapping the West Indian plumb in front of the wicket.
Parthiv Patel, who had opened the innings, was still in the middle, and wicketkeeper-batsman, along with Karan Sharma, built a key partnership of 42 from 6.1 over, which steadied the ship considerably.
Karan fell in the 15th over, caught behind by Adam Gilchrist off Parwinder Awana, which brought in Thisara Perera to the crease.
The two P's Patel (61, 47b, 5x4, 2x6) and Perera (32 n.o, 19b, 2x4, 2x6) combined brilliantly in the final five overs, with the Sunrisers taking 52 runs to push the target to 150, when at one time it looked like they would be lucky to get to 130.
