Hyderabad. Due to the fearless innings of the batsmen led by Abhishek Sharma, Sunrisers Hyderabad won the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 match against Punjab Kings by four wickets with five balls remaining on Sunday. Man of the Match Abhishek hit five fours and six sixes in his 28-ball innings and made 72 in 30 balls with Rahul Tripathi (33) for the second wicket and 31 balls with Nitish Kumar Reddy (37) for the third wicket. Laid the foundation of the team’s victory by making a partnership of 57 runs.
Batting first, Punjab Kings scored 214 runs for four wickets but Sunrisers registered a spectacular victory by scoring 215 runs for six wickets in 19.1 overs. With this win, Sunrisers have 17 points from 14 matches while Punjab’s campaign ended at ninth position with 10 points. Sunrisers team is currently at second position in the table but its continuation at this position will depend on the result of the match played between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the evening.
Tripathi hit four fours and two sixes in his 18-ball innings, while Reddy contributed 37 runs with the help of three sixes and one four in his 24-ball innings. He made a partnership of 47 runs in 23 balls for the fourth wicket with Klaasen. Klaasen hit three fours and two sixes during his innings of 42 runs in 26 balls. Arshdeep Singh took two wickets each for 37 runs and Harshal Patel took two wickets for 49 runs.
Apart from the innings of 71 runs in 45 balls by opener Prabhsimran Singh for Punjab, there was a partnership of 97 runs in 55 balls with Atharva Tayde for the first wicket and 54 runs in 32 balls with Riley Roseau for the second wicket. He hit seven fours and four sixes in his aggressive innings.
Both Tayde and Roseau missed completing their half-centuries. While Tayde scored 46 runs in 27 balls with the help of five fours and two sixes, Roseau played a quick inning of 49 runs in 24 balls with the help of three fours and four sixes. Jitesh Sharma, who was leading the team due to the return of acting captain Sam Curran to England, scored unbeaten 32 runs in 15 balls in the last overs, taking the team’s score to 214 runs. For Sunrisers Hyderabad, T Natarajan took two wickets for 33 runs in four overs. Captain Pat Cummins and Vijaykant Vyaskanth got one success each.
While defending the target, Arshdeep gave a great start to Punjab by bowling Travis Head (0) on the very first ball of the innings, but it had no effect on Tripathi, who was returning to the team, and Abhishek, who was in great form. After hitting two consecutive fours against Arshdeep, Tripathi hit a six and two fours on consecutive balls against Rishi Dhawan. After welcoming Harshal with a four in the third over, Abhishek ended it with a six. After this, Harshal returned after hitting a six from Tripathi on a no ball and showed him the way to the pavilion.
After hitting a six against Rishi in the sixth over, Abhishek made the record of hitting most sixes in a single season of IPL. He broke Virat Kohli’s record of 38 sixes hit in 2016. After completing his half-century in 21 balls, Abhishek hit sixes on consecutive balls against Harpreet Brar. Jitesh handed the ball to Shashank Singh and this bowler ended Abhishek’s flamboyant innings.
Even after Abhishek’s dismissal, Punjab bowlers did not get any respite. Reddy and Klaasen hit sixes easily against Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar. While Harshal trapped Reddy on the slow ball, Arshdeep got Shahbaz Ahmed caught by Shashank. Brar, who was expensive in his first two overs, stopped Klaasen’s aggressive innings by bowling him but by then it was too late.
Before this, Prabhasimran hit fours against Bhuvneshwar while Tayde gave an aggressive start to Punjab by hitting fours against Cummins and Natarajan. While Prabhasimran hit sixes over fine leg against Cummins, Tayde hit brilliant sixes over long on against Bhuvneshwar, taking the team’s score to 61 runs without any loss in the powerplay. The aggressive style of both continued even after the first six overs. Tayde welcomed left-arm spinner Shahbaz with a four and a six and put pressure on Sunrisers.
Natarajan showed Tayde the way to the pavilion in the 10th over and prevented him from completing his half-century and century partnership with Prabhasimran. He spent only two runs in this over. Prabhasimran completed his half-century in 34 balls by taking two runs against Vijaykant Vyaskanth in the next over and hit a six over the log on.
Roseau, who came to the crease, hit a four and a six on Reddy’s ball and after opening his hands, sent Natarajan’s ball into the audience gallery.
The team was in a better position after scoring 151 runs for one wicket after the 14th over, but in the 15th over, Prabhasimran’s aggressive innings was ended by a brilliant catch by Klaasen off the ball of Vyaskanth.
Roseau hit a six and a four against Reddy but Shashank Singh (two), who was in excellent form, fell victim to a mistake and was run out. Bhuvneshwar restricted the run rate by giving just six runs in his last and 17th over of the innings, the benefit of which was Cummins got the wicket of Roseau and Natarajan with the wicket of Ashutosh Sharma (two runs). Jitesh took the team to 200 runs by hitting a four off Reddy’s ball in the last over and hit consecutive sixes on the last two balls.