The Sunrisers Hyderabad secured their third consecutive Indian Premier League victory when they cruised to a five-wicket victory over the Kings XI Punjab in Hyderabad yesterday.
The Sunrisers had been on course for a crushing victory with David Warner (59) and Shikhar Dhawan (45) at the wicket, but once Warner departed, the home side trundled to their target, ending on 146 for five with 13 balls to spare in reply to the Kings XI’s modest 143 for six after Warner had won the toss and elected to field first.
Warner, who is now the tournament’s leading run-scorer, smashed three maximums and seven boundaries to register his fourth half-century (23 balls) in the IPL while sharing in an opening stand of 90 off 62 balls with Dhawan. But just when he looking like taking his team all the way on his own, he mishit a delivery from Sandeep Sharma (4-0-30-1) and was caught by David Miller on the long-on boundary after his 31-ball knock.
The visitors thought they were back in the game when Miller swooped on a ball and threw the very next ball to Naik to have Aditya Tare run out for a first-ball duck. Dhawan, who struggled to hit a ball in anger, faced 44 deliveries with just four boundaries before being caught behind by Nikhil Naik off Rishi Dhawan (4-0-35-1) after adding 25 off 24 balls with Eoin Morgan (25) for the third wicket.
Morgan and Deepak Hooda (5) posted 24 runs off 19 balls for the fourth wicket and were looking set to help their side to a seven-wicket victory when Manan Vohra produced a brilliant catch at short mid-wicket to dismiss Morgan, who had faced 20 deliveries and struck two fours and a six.
As was with the first wicket, the Kings XI picked up a wicket off the next ball when Miller threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end to have Hooda run out. But Moises Henriques (5 not out) and Naman Ojha (2 not out) saw their side home.
Earlier, the Sunrisers’ Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman strangled the visitors with figures of 4-1-9-2, picking up the wickets of Shaun Marsh, who top-scored with 40 off 34 balls with three fours and two sixes, and Naik (22), who shared in a sixth-wicket stand of 50 off 36 balls with Axar Patel to rescue the innings.
The Kings XI had slumped to 89 for five with Murali Vijay (2), Vohra (25), Miller (9), Maxwell (1) and Marsh all back in the hut before Patel and Naik rescued the innings as the pair gave the visitors something to bowl at. But the Scrooge-like bowling of man-of-the-match Mustafizur made all the difference while Henriques (4-0-33-2) accounted for Miller and Maxwell.
The Sunrisers, after losing their opening two matches to Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders, have now won three on the trot and move up to third on the IPL table with six points, while the Kings XI remain rock-bottom on two points after five matches.
Brief scores
Sunrisers Hyderabad 146 for 5 (D Warner 59, S Dhawan 45) beat Kings XI Punjab 143 for 6 (S Marsh 40, Axar Patel 36*; Mustafizur 2-9) by five wickets