Sunrisers Hyderabad continued their good habit of stealing victory from the jaws of defeat as they defended a low total once again to register a 13-run win over Kings XI Punjab in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Rashid Khan picked 3/19 and Sandeep Sharma picked 2/17 as KXIP were dismissed for 119, chasing 133 to win. KXIP had started the chase well after in-form openers KL Rahul and Chris Gayle put on a 55-run stand for the 1st wicket.
Both departed in quick succession with Rashid cleaning up Rahul and then Basil Thampi getting the better of Gayle with a quick short-pitched delivery. The pitch was a bit slow and sluggish, assisting the Hyderabad spinners who put on a good show. Rashid was supported by Shakib-Al-Hasan who ended with figures of 3/18. He accounted for Mayank Agarwal, whose dismissal for 12 due to a poor shot sparked panic in the Kings XI batting. Rashid then accounted for Karun Nair, getting him lbw.
None of the other Kings XI batsmen scored in double figures, till no.11 Mujeeb scored a couple of boundaries and remained unbeaten on 10. Earlier, it was a brilliant effort from young Ankit Rajpoot who picked career-best figures of 5/14 to reduce Sunrisers to 132 in their 20 overs. He was also named man-of-the-match for his effort.
The figure could have been a lot less had Kings XI held onto the chances that were presented to them. Manish Pandey top scored with 54 off 51 balls but he was dropped twice – by Ashwin and then Mayank Agarwal – and he made Kings XI pay for those errors.
SRH top-order didn’t last long and they were reduced to 27/3 with Rajpoot doing the maximum damage. The top-order’s form will certainly worry Tom Moody as Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha have been struggling for form. Kane Williamson had a rare bad outing as he was dismissed for a 0.
Shakib-Al-Hasan and Pandey then put on 52-runs for the fourth wicket, but that too after Shakib had been dismissed on what later turned out to be a no-ball.
The Bangladeshi ended up scoring 28 runs and then Yusuf Pathan scored 21 runs to help Sunrisers post a respectable total.
Sunrisers will now take on the Rajasthan Royals in their next fixture on Sunday meanwhile Kings XI will enjoy a 7-day break before taking on Mumbai Indians.