Sunrisers Hyderabad have played some outstanding cricket in IPL 2016, and they continued their impressive show, defeating Kings XI Punjab by seven wickets at PCA Stadium in Mohali. SRH, with this victory, have aquired 16 points from 12 games, and have qualified for the playoffs as well.
The SRH batsmen were set a target of 180 runs to win, and won the game in a last-over thriller. David Warner and Yuvraj Singh batted wonderfully well to help SRH pick their eighth win of the season.
Warner and Shikhar Dhawan got off to a much-needed great start as they had to score nine runs per over from the very first ball. The duo scored 55 runs in the first six overs, but Dhawan was back in the dugout for 25 runs. Warner, who has been the best batsmen for SRH in IPL 2016, reached his half-century in 36 balls, which was his sixth fifty this season.
But, the job was only half done as they still had to score more than 90 runs from nine overs. And with Warner dismissed hit-wicket, the task looked uphill. SRH were dependent on other players like Deepak Hooda and Yuvraj Singh.
Hooda and Yuvraj played some brilliant shots for some boundaries, but the required rate was still high as they had to score 61 runs from the last six overs. With some lusty blows from the duo, SRH looked good for a win, but Hooda was dismissed for 22-ball 34.
After a brilliant 17th over from Axar Patel, who just gave away two runs, the match was turning out to be interesting as they required 39 runs from 18 balls. But SRH were in the driving seat after their batsmen hit 19 runs in the 18th over, and the game was evenly poised with SRH scoring 11 runs in the penultimate over.
SRH required 9 runs to win from the final over, and the visitors won the game with two balls to spare. Yuvraj finished unbeaten on 42 runs, which comprised three fours and three sixes.
Earlier Kings XI Punjab openers – Hashim Amla and Murali Vijay – scored runs at a good rate, but the Indian batsman was out in the fifth over. New batsman Wriddhiman Saha was providing great support to Amla, who was batting splendidly well.
The SRH bowlers were not able to contain the run flow as Amla was scoring runs in boundaries. Despite the wicket of Saha, Amla was going great guns alongside Gurkeerat Singh, who was promoted up the order. Gurkeerat also played his shots, scoring 27 runs from 20 balls, which included four boundaries.
Amla was just playing some wonderful cricket, but failed to complete his ton as he was out in the final over of the first innings. He scored 96 runs from 56 balls, which comprised 14 fours and two sixes. With 9-ball 20, David Miller powered Kings XI Punjab to a good total of 179 runs.
However, the SRH batsmen proved to be too good as they reached the target in the final over of the match. One has to applaud SRH, as all their batsmen contributed to chase down the total in 19.4 overs.
