On Saturday, Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered yet another defeat, going down by five runs in a low-scoring encounter against the Punjab Kings.
A knock of substance from all-rounder Jason Holder was the only saving grace for the Sunrisers as a batting failure let them down in the chase of the Punjab Kings’ 125/7 in the second half.
Holder took great advantage of anything too full from PBKS bowlers on a dryish track where spinners and pacers enjoyed great success whenever they bowled the good length. The West Indies all-rounder batting No.7 hit as many as five sixes in his 29-ball 47 and took the game to the final over. But PBKS’ overseas pacer Nathan Ellis kept the damage down to 11 runs when SRH required 17 off the last six balls and ensured victory for his team.
However, to say Ellis was the real hero for PBKS on the night would be grossly unfair on the likes of Mohammed Shami (2/14), Arshdeep Singh (1/22), Harpreet Brar (0/25) and Ravi Bishnoi (3/24).
The quartet did the bulk of the job and kept PBKS in the contest where they were defending only a shade over 6 runs per over. Shami delivered early strikes that KL Rahul and his men desperately required. He got the prized scalps of David Warner (2) and Kane Williamson (1) and reduced SRH to 10/2 inside the first three overs.
Arshdeep also kept things tight from an end during the initial stage of the innings and came back to bowl even better at the death against Holder. The left-arm pacer showed great game awareness as he never looked for the yorkers, with the possibility of erring on the fuller side, instead bowled into the track and got just enough grip and uneven bounce to make life difficult for the West Indian.
Unorthodox wrist-spinner Ravi Bishnoi had a fantastic outing through the middle-overs for PBKS, taking three wickets of his four overs at the cost of just 24 runs. Bishnoi, alongside fellow spinner Harpreet Brar (0/25), never allowed SRH batters to get going and gain any sort of rhythm. Manish Pandey (13 off 23) and Kedar Jadhav (12 off 12) could only see the asking rate climb up as they struggled to break free at the crease before falling in succession.
The case with Wriddhiman Saha (31 off 37) was also the same but at least Saha ensured he kept SRH floating before Holder got into his act near the end.
Unlike the second half, the first fell mostly in place for the 2016 champions, who had Holder, again, leading their act. The tall speedster bowled an impressive spell of 3/19, including the prized scalps of KL Rahul (21) and Mayank Agarwal (5) right at the beginning of the PBKS innings.
On what was a bowlers’ day, Indian quicks Sandeep Sharma (1/20), Khaleel Ahmed (0/22) and Afghanistan wrist-spinner Rashid Khan (1/17) also bowled superbly for SRH. The only time PBKS got away from SRH was at the death against experienced pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar who was the only expensive bowler on the night for his team, conceding 34 off his four overs with one wicket.
Twenties from Rahul, Aiden Markram (27) and useful lower-order runs from Brar (18), Ellis (12) took PBKS past the 120-mark on a challenging track to bat on.
Brief scores
Punjab Kings 125/7 in 20 overs (Markram 27, KL Rahul 21; Holder 3/19, Khan 1/17) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 120/7 in 20 overs (Holder 47*, Saha 31; Bishnoi 3/24, Shami 2/14) by five runs.
