By Neil Manthorp
Aiden Markram guided the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a straightforward victory by seven-wickets with an unbeaten 41 from 27 deliveries in their IPL match against the Punjab Kings at the DY Patil Sports Academy Ground in Mumbai on Sunday.
Replying to a modest 151 all Markram and Trinidadian Nicholas Pooran (35* from 30 balls) steadied the run chase from 77-3 with a match-winning partnership of 75 to seal the victory with seven balls to spare. It was the third time the two batsmen had completed a run chase together and the fourth consecutive victory for the Sunrisers who move to the top of the log after losing their opening two games.
Liam Livingstone earlier struck an enterprising 60 from 33 balls for Punjab but Sunrisers fast bowler Umran Malik claimed 4-28 to restrict the innings after a promising start with Livingstone racing to his half century from just 26 balls before slapping a short ball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar to cover having hit five fours and four sixes. Malik produced a triple-wicket maiden in the 20th over of the innings.
Shikhar Dhawan (8) earlier miscued the same bowler to mid on before Jonny Bairstow (12) was lbw sweeping left-arm spinner Jagdeesha Suchith. Wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma (11) was undone by Malik’s extreme pace and offered a simple return catch to the bowler while Shahrukh Khan’s painful crawl to 26 from 28 balls ended with a skied catch to Kane Williamson at cover against Bhuvneshwar who finished with 3-22.
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Vaibhav Arora, Arshdeep Singh
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (captain), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran(w), Shashank Singh, Jagadeesha Suchith, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik, T Natarajan.