IPL 10, Match 33, Kings XI Punjab vs Sunrisers Hyderabad: Match Review

Sunrisers Hyderabad is one of the best-balanced sides in the league. They have a perfect blend of Indian and foreign players with extraordinarily good mentors. Kings XI Punjab have the talent but are finding it hard to use their resources to some good effect.

They are hovering at the tail end of the table and have given away the early advantage they had. Today’s game was very important for Punjab as they wanted to build on the previous win. The match started out well for them as they won the toss and elected to field but David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan came out all guns blazing.

The duo was smashing the bits out of the bowlers as they leaked runs in the powerplay. Warner was middling the ball and Dhawan was graceful as ever. Scoring 60 of the first 6 overs and then 47 of the next 3, the openers did their job beautifully. The opening partnership was worth 107 runs before Warner was dispatched by Maxwell.

Dhawan and Kane Williamson, the new man then added another 40 runs when the former was sent packing by Mohit Sharma. The southpaw made 77 from 48 deliveries while David Warner scored 51 of 27 deliveries.

This great start had to be capitalised and Williamson made sure it was. The man from New Zealand took the matter into his own hands and played a brisk knock of 54 from 27 deliveries. This late onslaught was enough to take Sunrisers Hyderabad to a total past 200.

Punjab had a task on their hands as they needed 208 to win from the 20 overs.

Hyderabad is one of the best bowling and fielding units in the league. Chasing a total of that stature was not going to be easy. Martin Guptill made sure that Punjab got a good start but could not continue as he perished for 24 of 11. Vohra soon followed after he played a loose shot and gifted Ashish Nehra a wicket.

Shaun Marsh came in and was looking good from the first delivery but he kept losing his partners. Glenn Maxwell, whose presence at the crease was extremely important, disappeared for a duck. He looped a hip high delivery to the short fine leg.

This left Marsh and Eoin Morgan at the crease with the score of 42 for 3. The duo then sketched a wonderful partnership together with Shaun Marsh being the main man and was Morgan playing second fiddle to him. Both of them added 73 runs briskly to keep up with the required run rate.

Morgan then left the side of Marsh after succumbed to the 18-year-old Rashid Khan. Saha soon followed him and suddenly everything looked glum for the home team. Shaun Marsh was the lone fighter as he kept on going and scored a magnificent 84 just 50 deliveries.

However, his effort went in vain as his team fell short by 26 runs facing yet another defeat; fifth defeat in eight games. Nehra went for runs but picked up 3 wickets and so did Siddharth Kaul. Rashid Khan picked up one wicket and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar added two to his already impressive tally.

Hyderabad won the game easily and are looking solid. They are sitting pretty with 11 points on the board and a play-off place not so far.

Brief Scores:

KXIP vs SRH – SRH won by 26 runs

SRH: 207/3 20 Overs (Dhawan 77, Williamson 54, Maxwell 2/29)

KXIP: 181/9 20 Overs (Marsh 84, Nehra 3/42, Kaul 3/36)

Check out full points table here

Check out full scorecard here