IPL24: Sunrisers withstands fierce Punjab fightback to win a thriller by 2 runs

 

Punjab Kings could not win despite putting pressure on Sunrisers Hyderabad at home.  Batting first , Pat Cummins' team scored 182 for 9 wickets.  In reply, Shikhar Dhawan's team ended their innings at 180 for 6.   Punjab's batsmen remained uncomfortable throughout the entire innings in front of the controlled bowling of Cummins and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.  But the fightback by the lower order of Shashank & Ashutosh was fierce until the last ball.  Punjab lost by 2 runs.

 Punjab captain Dhawan won the toss and decided to field at home.  Hyderabad could not use the opportunity to bat first in front of Arshdeep Singh's bowling.  However, thanks to Nitish Reddy's innings of 64 runs, Cummins team reached a position of strength .  Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma did not start the innings badly for Hyderabad.  Although no opener got big runs.  Head scored 21 runs off 15 balls and hit 4 fours.  16 off 11 balls came from Abhishek's bat. He hit 2 fours and 1 six.  Aden Markram (0) at number three did not get a run as he was caught behind off Arshdeep .  Batters like Rahul Tripathi (11), Henrik Klaasen (9) also failed in Mohali's 22 yards. Strangely Klaasen was sent out to bat late .Nitish, who came at number four, pulled the team's innings after losing consecutive wickets.  His innings essentially put SRH in contention.  Abdul Samad gave him some support.  His blistering  25-run innings came from 12 balls.  Samad hit 5 fours.  Nitish played an important innings of 64 runs off 37 balls.  The 20-year-old batting all-rounder completed his innings with 4 fours and 5 sixes.  Their pair scored 50 runs. It was breathtaking hitting by Nitish which totally changed the game in favour of SRH  after early setbacks . 

Cummins (3) did not fire .  In the end Shahbaz Ahmed of Bengal played an unbeaten innings of 14 runs off 7 balls.  He hit a four and a six each.  Bhuvneshwar scored 6 runs off 8 balls.  Jaydev Unadkat remained unbeaten with 6 runs off the last ball which .  Arshdeep, the most successful bowler of Punjab, took 4 wickets for 29 runs.  On this day, the Hyderabad batsmen had trouble handling the ball of the left-handed bowler.  Apart from this, Harshal Patel took 2 wickets with 30 runs.  2 wickets for 41 runs by Sam Curran.

 In response, Punjab faced a batting disaster.  They lost 3 wickets for 20 runs.  Dhawan (14), Jonny Bairstow (nil), Pravsimran Singh (4) returned in quick succession.  Bairstow was dismissed bowled by Cummins.  The other two went to  Bhubaneswar. Curran tried to bring the team back into the fight but could not score big runs.  He scored 29 off 22 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes.  After that, Sikandar Raja and Shashank Singh tried to take control of the team's innings.  They also did not succeed.  Raza made 28 off 22 balls.  Hit 2 fours and a six each before being dismissed by Unadkat.  Jitesh Sharma also tried a little.  He scored 19 runs off 11 balls with 1 four and a six.  Shashank's unbeaten innings of 46 runs off 25 balls.  He hit 6 fours, 1 six.  Ashutosh Sharma remained unbeaten on 33 off 15 balls.  He hit 3 fours and 2 sixes. Together both Shashank & Ashutosh nearly repeated their feat against Gujarat, here also with breathtaking strokeplay . Punjab looked well out of the game for much of their batting innings but almost pulled it back in sensational fashion in the last 3 overs through Shashank & Ashutosh as the ball disappeared to all parts of the ground theough some breathtaking strokes but they fell agonisingly short at the end 

 Apart from Cummins, Bhuvneshwar, T Natarajan, Unadkat also bowled well.  Nitish also took a wicket.  Bhuvneshwar took 2 wickets for 32 runs.  The Hyderabad captain took 1 wicket with 22 runs.  Natarajan took 1 wicket for 33 runs.  Nitish also took 1 wicket with 33 runs.  Unadkat took 1 wicket for 56 runs.  Nitish Reddy was the player of the match .