Kings humbled in Punjab

A quickfire half-century from David Warner and a brilliant bowling performance from Sunrisers Hyderabad led them to a comfortable 20-run victory over Kings XI Punjab at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Chandigarh yesterday.

Batting first, Warner hammered 58 off 41 deliveries and didn't let Shikhar Dhawan's early departure bother the side. He hit ten fours and a six and batted at a splendid strike-rate of 141.46. Warner though was caught in the tenth over. Following his wicket Hyderabad suddenly found themselves in a precarious 76 for 3.

That's when Moises Henriques and Naman Ojha began to rebuild the innings. They both played cautious knocks and took Hyderabad past the 120-mark in 17 overs.

However, they couldn't make the most of their cautious approach as both batsmen departed by the 18th over. At 123 for 5 and barely 15 balls remaining, Hyderabad needed someone to charge and that's when Ashish Reddy stepped in. He hammered 22 runs off 8 deliveries, including two sixes and a four to take the visitors to 150.

After the exchange, Hyderabad held on to the momentum they gained from Reddy's little burst and reduced Punjab to 53 for 4 after nine overs. Their pacers, Trent Boult and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar bowled brilliantly, took key wickets and tilted the game towards their favour halfway through the innings.

After David Miller got out in the 13th over, Wriddhiman Saha and Akshar Patel tried their best to bring back Punjab into the game. Together the pair shared 44 runs in 4.5 overs and reduced the asking rate by a huge margin. However, with 28 runs required of the last 13 balls, Saha succumbed to Boult and the game ended there for Punjab.

SCORES IN BRIEF 
HYDERABAD: 150 for 6 (Warner 58, Henriques 30; Patel 2-25, Johnson 2-39)
PUNJAB: 130 for 9 (Saha 42; Boult 3-19, Kumar 2-23)
Result: Hyderabad won by 20 runs