IPL 2021: Bairstow, Rashid star as Sunrisers beats Punjab for first win
Sunrisers Hyderabad made light work of Punjab Kings’ 121-run target, romping home with nine wickets to spare for its first win of the IPL season.
Published : Apr 21, 2021 19:25 IST
Sunrisers Hyderabad made light work of Punjab Kings’ 121-run target, romping home with nine wickets to spare at Chennai's M. A. Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday for its first win of IPL 2021.
David Warner and Jonny Bairstow got SRH’s chase off to a positive start, racing to 50 for no loss in the six-over Powerplay, with the latter’s two sixes off Fabian Allen and Moises Henriques the highlights. The duo blunted Punjab’s attack with some good running and positive stroke play.
PBKS captain K. L. Rahul would’ve hoped his spinners would take control through the middle overs and upped the required rate. But the SRH openers kept the scoreboard ticking with occasional big hits while pinching ones and twos. Warner added 73 for the first wicket before holing out for a run-a-ball 37. That didn’t deter Bairstow, who hit an unbeaten 63 off 56 balls and in the company of Kane Williamson – who returned after an elbow niggle – saw the team home with eight balls to spare.
Earlier, batting first, PBKS openers K. L. Rahul and Mayank Agarwal were suffocated by some tight bowling. With the wicket dry and offering turn, left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma opened the attack and would’ve dismissed Agarwal in his first over had Rashid Khan held on to a tough chance at deep midwicket.
SRH, though, didn’t have to wait long for its first breakthrough, with Rahul hitting a short-of-a-length delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar straight to Kedar Jadhav – one of three changes made by Sunrisers – at short midwicket. Warner gave his bowlers one-over spells in the first six except for Kumar, who bowled his three upfront.
Rashid made up for his earlier dropped catch immediately after the Powerplay when he took a sharp catch at midwicket to get rid of Agarwal, and on the first ball of the very next over, Nicholas Pooran, batting at No. 4 for the first time this season, was run out without facing a delivery. A ball later, Deepak Hooda would’ve been caught if Siddarth Kaul had been at the fine-leg boundary instead of being well inside it.
Then the spinners took over, and Punjab lost its way further. Rashid trapped Chris Gayle in front with a leg-break before Hooda was given out lbw off Sharma.
The batsman reviewed, but DRS upheld the umpire’s call. Shahrukh Khan provided some late power hitting, clearing the ropes twice in a 17-ball knock of 22. He was caught off Khaleel Ahmed (3 for 21).