By Neil Manthorp.
Rahul Tripathi’s 74* and captain Aiden Markram (37*) led the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a comfortable eight-wicket victory with three overs to spare against the Punjab Kings in their IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday evening.
But it was anything but a straightforward game.
Punjab captain Shikhar Dhawan made an extraordinary 99 not out in a total of just 143-9 as legspinner Mayank Markande claimed figures of 4-15 to help Sunrisers restrict Punjab to a far better total than expected after crashing to 88-9.
Dhawan faced 66 balls and struck 12 fours and five sixes sharing in an IPL record 10th-wicket stand of 55 with last man Mohit Rathee (1) who faced only two balls.
Marco Jansen claimed two early wickets to start the Punjab slide which would have been deeply embarrassing without Shikhar’s remarkable, one-man show amidst the carnage.
Opener Prabhsimran Singh was trapped lbw by Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the first ball of the match and Australian Matthew Short (1) followed the same way to a Jansen (2-16) inswinger. When Jitesh Sharma (4) drove Jansen straight to Aiden Markram at mid off the Kings were 22-3 in the fourth over.
Sam Curran (22) briefly threatened to pay back some of his R36-million purchase price with three fours and a straight six off Jansen before a swipe across the line against a Markande googly looped into the hands of Bhuvneshwar at short third man.
At 88-9 with five overs remaining Punjab looked dead and buried but Dhawan not only scored freely but manipulated the strike with great skill to give his team a fighting chance when there had been none.
Despite losing Harry Brook (13) and fellow opener Mayank Agarwal (21) early in the run-chase Tripathi (48 balls, 10×4, 3×6) and Markram (21 balls, 6×4) eased the team to victory.
Sunrisers had lost their opening two games, both batting second, but Markram decision to chase for a third time was vindicated. Punjab had been one of only two unbeaten teams along with defending champions, Gujarat Titans.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD:Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen (wkt), Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, T Natarajan
PUNJAB KINGS:Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Prabhsimran Singh, Matthew Short, Jitesh Sharma (wkt), Shahrukh Khan, Sam Curran, Nathan Ellis, Mohit Rathee, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.