Punjab Kings’ batting too strong for misfiring SRH attack
SRH – 219/6 (Abhishek Sharma 74 off 28) lost to PBKS – 223/4 in 18.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 69 off 33) by 6 wickets
Man of the Match: Shreyas Iyer
The battle of the openers was a highly anticipated contest, and at the end of the IPL league match between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), the spectators would have been delighted with the fare that was served on the ground. However, it was the middle-order batting of Shreyas Iyer that separated the two teams in the end as PBKS won against SRH by six wickets with seven balls to spare.
Travishek explodes
SRH depends a lot on their batting and having two world-class opening batsmen followed by two of the most feared middle-order bashers in Ishan Kishan and Klaasen, their modus operandi batting first has been to decimate the bowlers from the word go and take the game away from their opponents. And their openers certainly followed the plan. After a relatively quiet first two overs, by their standards, that brought 20 runs, Abhishek targeted Arshdeep in the third. First, a short and then a slower ball were both dispatched for boundaries on the off side, and Arshdeep tried taking the ball away from the batsman’s arc. He started conceding wides, a problem that has afflicted him for some time now, and lost confidence. Two more sixes made it 24 off the over, and the freight train got running at top speed. Head too joined in the fun, and Jansen, Vyshak and Barlett were meted the same treatment for 16, 24 and 21 runs respectively. The powerplay finished at 105/0 and PBKS were panicking.
Shashank comes to the rescue
Shreyas Iyer seemed to run out of ideas, and it was more in desperation and hope that he had to turn to Shashank to bowl the next over. An aggressive batsman, Shashank is not exactly known for his bowling and, in fact, has bowled only 30 balls in 45 IPL matches so far and taken a solitary wicket, coincidentally that of Abhishek. And it was not exactly that the main bowlers were lining up to have a go. It was more of a Hail Mary from the fielding team. The move worked like a charm as only 6 runs were conceded that over, as Head struggled to time the slow medium pace deliveries. His second over was even more incredible, as he managed to get rid of Head by a back-of-a-length ball, which was hit to long on. Next, Abhishek was caught at the cover boundary as he could not compensate enough for the lack of pace. What looked like a 300-plus score was now more manageable. An eleven runs over later, Shreyas decided not to push his luck too far, and that was it for Shashank as a bowler for the day.
A freak catch and slowdown
At 132/2 at the 10-over mark, a score of 250 was still well within range, but a lot depended on Klaasen and Ishan Kishan. Ishan was warming up for a final onslaught quite well when a fluky one-handed catch by Jansen on the deep midwicket boundary cut short his innings at 27 off 17 balls. Everyone in the ground was stunned, none more so than Arshdeep, the bowler and Jansen himself, as they had expected the ball to sail for a six. Score was now 169/3 off 14 overs. From there, Klaasen just seemed to get stuck, and the same bowlers that had been hit to all parts of the ground earlier got their edge back. Aniket Verma tried his best with an enterprising 18 off 9, hitting Chahal over cow corner for a six and a boundary straight down the pitch, but was sold down the river by Klaasen, who had called for a second run, to be run out. A brilliant final over by Bartlett accounted for Klaasen and only conceded 5 runs, and SRH could manage 219/6.
Priyansh and Prabhsimran go ultra-aggressive
The PBKS openers Priyansh and Prabhsimran started the chase in their typical belligerent style. Opening over by left-arm spinner went for 18 runs, and the pacers could not bring much respite to SRH either. Both preferred the straight boundaries to length balls, and when the ball was short, played comfortably square of the wickets. Harshal came in for some special treatment by Priyansh in the last over of the powerplay that went for 21 runs. A wide ball was comfortably hammered over deep cover for six, a short ball was somehow hit straight over long on boundary, wide length balls straight to the sightscreen for a one-bounce boundary and next to the long on boundary. The last of the fours brought Priyansh’s 50 off 16 balls and PBKS’s powerplay score at 93/0, not too far away from SRH’s own.
Shivang brings SRH back
Shivang Kumar came with his left arm wrist spin and immediately stuck, getting Priyansh to hole out at deep midwicket, after having been hit in the same direction one ball earlier. He tossed the ball up and managed to bring SRH back into the match. Next, he got Prabhsimran with a well-disguised googly, Klaasen taking a good catch at long off. He got a good amount of revs on the ball and deceived Connolly to mistime it high to long off to get PBKS to 128/3.
Shreyas Iyer ensures PBKS win
The PBKS scorecard was now looking eerily like that of SRH, who had lost their way somewhat after a great start. But they had the advantage of batting second. 84 runs were required off 9 overs with 7 wickets in hand, and on a good batting surface, they just had to keep their heads. Shreyas proved just why he is such a dangerous batsman in the middle overs. He started by taking singles and picking his targets. Nitish Reddy was belted for a boundary, and a six off the last two balls of his over and Harshal again came in for punishment in his second over for a couple of sixes and a four. Just when things got comfortable, Wadhera missed a full ball completely from Dubey to get bowled. Next batsman Shashank Singh mistimed a lofted shot and almost got caught by the extra cover fielder, but the fielder could not reach on time. That was the last time SRH had any hope in the match, and Shreyas closed out the match with a match-winning innings of 69 off 33 balls. SRH, with only one win in four matches, will be hoping that their middle and lower-middle order batsmen and the bowlers start performing for the season not to get any worse.