Captain Shreyas Iyer led from the front under pressure with his unbeaten 69 off 33 balls as he flatted the SRH bowling to pieces. Shreyas Iyer paced his innings well and drove home from a solid start by the Punjab openers. SRH batted first and through Abhishek Sharma’s special and contributions from others, got the score to 219/6 in 20 overs, where 250 was on at one stage.
In reply, Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya gave the side an explosive start, scoring 95 in the powerplay and 99 coming for the first wicket with both notching half-centuries. Shreyas Iyer drove home the advantage with his unbeaten 69 as Punjab romped home to the win by 6 wickets with 7 balls to spare. Punjab is looking good in second place in the table.
Abhishek Sharma’s fiery half-century powers SRH to a massive 219/6.Â
Put into bat first by PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer, the dynamic duo of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head came out to bat for SRH while Arshdeep Singh had the ball in hand for PBKS. What followed was sheer carnage from the two openers. Travi-shekh, as they are fondly called, put on a show that dismantled PBKS bowling, and the home team did not know what hit them in this game.
Both were aggressive, but it was the Abhishek Sharma show as the southpaw showed his potential, and Head was with him. It was just carnage in the powerplay as the bat dominated the ball, as it was a boundary fest at New Chandigarh. The powerplay was great for SRH as they amassed 105 runs for the first 6 overs for the loss of 0 wickets with Abhishek past his half-century. The duo put on 120 for the first wicket in 8 overs.
It was the introduction of part-time bowler Shashank Singh that brought the breakthrough and relief for the home team. He first dismissed Travis Head for 38 off 23 balls with 5 fours and one six to his name. Captain and keeper batter Ishan Kishan came out to bat next. Shashank had two in the over as just two runs were added to the tally before Abhishek, the form batter, fell for 74 off 28 balls with 5 fours and 8 sixes to his name. Heinrich Klaasen came out to bat next.
Ishan and Klaasen tried to keep the momentum going and flourished to take the game forward. They played and navigated through the middle phase and put on 47 runs for the 3rd wicket before the skipper Ishan departed for 27 off 17 balls with 3 fours and one six to his name to Arshdeep Singh. Aniket Varma came out to bat with the score at 169/3 in 14 overs. Aniket was quickly off the blocks while Klaasen struggled a tad for his timing. The duo put on 26 for the 4th wicket before Aniket fell for 18 off 9 balls with one four and one six to his name via a run out.
Salil Arora came out to bat next. Klaasen was the set batter out there and kept the innings going. The duo could muster another 19 runs for the 5th wicket before Arora fell for 9 off 8 balls with one six to his name to Arshdeep. Nitish Kumar Reddy came out to bat next. Just 4 runs were added to the tally before Klaasen fell for 39 off 33 balls with 1 four and one six to his name to Xavier Bartlett. Harsh Dubey came out to bat next.
Just one run was added off the last two balls as the Sunrisers Hyderabad finished with 219/6 in 20 overs. Nitish was unbeaten on 0 off 1 ball while Harsh Dubey was unbeaten on 1 off 2 balls. The Orange Army could have reached 250+ but were pegged back by the Punjab Kings to under 220. 13 extras given by the fielding side.
Punjab Kings were all over the place initially, but came back well towards the back half of the innings. Shashank Singh was the surprise package as he finished with 2/20 in 3 overs. Arshdeep Singh finished with 2/50 in 4 overs. Xavier Bartlett finished with 1/42 in 4 overs. Marco Jansen finished with 0/40 in 4 overs. Vyshak Vijaykumar finished with 0/33 in 2 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal finished with 0/33 in 3 overs. So, this meant that PBKS needed 220 runs to win in 20 overs.
Shreyas Iyer’s fiery unbeaten half-century takes PBKS over the line.Â
Chasing 220 for the win, Priyansh Arya and keeper batter Prabhsimran Singh came out to open for PBKS while Harsh Dubey started the bowling for SRH. It was an action replay of what happened in the first innings in the powerplay of PBKS as Prabhsimran and Arya came out all guns blazing and took the struggling SRH bowling to the cleaners. Prabhsimran started it all before Arya too joined the party, as this power play too went the batting side’s way.
The powerplay score after the completion of 6 overs was 95/0 for the home team. Arya completed his half-century before the powerplay and hit the first ball post powerplay for a boundary. But the introduction of Shivang Kumar brought joy for the SRH team. The opening duo put on 99 in 6.2 overs as Arya was the first one to go, as he departed for 57 off 20 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes to his name, to Kumar. Cooper Connolly came out to bat next.
Prabhsimran continued his merry ways post the dismissal of Arya and completed his fifty. Arya had done so in 16 balls while Singh did it in 24 balls. Connolly and Prabhsimran Singh put on 18 runs for the second wicket before Prabhsimran completed his fifty and got out for 51 off 25 balls with 4 fours and 4 sixes to his name against Kumar. Captain Shreyas Iyer came out to bat next.
Just 11 runs were added to the tally before Connolly fell for 11 off 12 balls, with one four to his name to Kumar. Impact Player Nehal Wadhera came out to bat next. Wadhera got off the mark in style, but from this point it was the Shreyas Iyer show. The captain of PBKS put on a show and paced his innings perfectly while Nehal gave him good company and rotated the strike. Iyer just took the game away from the opposition and showed how he reads the game so well.
Wadhera was a mere spectator as Iyer went about his work in a professional manner. The duo put on 69 for the 4th wicket before Wadhera was cleaned up for 14 off 14 balls with one six to his name to Harsh Dubey. Shashank Singh, the finisher, came out to bat next with 23 needed for the win. Shreyas completed his fifty and never allowed pressure to get to the team by hitting timely boundaries.
Shreyas and Shashank ensured there were no further hiccups as they added the remaining runs and calmly got to the target in 18.5 overs as Punjab chased down a 200+ total for a record 10th time in IPL history. Shreyas was unbeaten on 69 off 33 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes to his name, while Shashank was unbeaten on 16 off 9 balls with one four and one six to his name. Punjab Kings finished with 223/4 in 18.5 overs with 5 extras given by the fielding side.
For SRH, Shivang Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/33 in 4 overs. Harsh Dubey finished with 1/38 in 4 overs. Impact Player Jaydev Unadkat finished with 0/40 in 3 overs. Eshan Malinga finished with 0/46 in 3 overs. Harshal Patel finished with 0/39 in 2 overs. Nitish Kumar Reddy finished with 0/20 in 2 overs. Abhishek Sharma bowled 5 balls for 7 runs. So, Punjab Kings win by 6 wickets with 7 balls to spare to climb to second in the table with 7 points from 4 games. Captain Shreyas Iyer was awarded the Player of the Match.
What Lies Ahead.Â
So, PBKS maintains second place and will be back in action next week. While SRH will next play against RR, the table-toppers on Monday night in Hyderabad. Coming up next is another game later tonight where CSK takes on DC in Chennai. CSK is in search of its first win this season.
Let us see how that contest unfolds in Chennai.
Also Read: PBKS vs SRH: Abhishek Sharma’s ThunderStorm Knock Sets Gigantic Target For PBKS