A morale boosting 69-run victory has elevated the Sunrisers Hyderabad to the third position in the points table but another crushing defeat has almost evaporated all the hopes of a playoff place in this IPL for the Kings XI Punjab.
The Warner-Bairstow show resumed
If David Warner was lucky with the toss then Punjab showed its nervousness by bowling five wides in the very first over. After that the worst fear of KXIP came true when Jonny Bairstow and Warner (he keeps scoring against them, his ninth fifty in a row!) put up a 160-run opening partnership. Warner hit 5 boundaries in his first four balls but it was Bairstow who stood tallest even though he missed a deserving ton by three runs.
“Very pleased, that's my third fifty in the competition. The consistency is the key. The partnership at the top was the key tonight. He's (Warner) a good fun, we know what a quality player he is. It was his 50th fifty in IPL, that record speaks for itself. It was important for us tonight to get a win,” said Bairstow after getting the Man of the Match award who hit 7 fours and 6 sixes in his 55 ball stay.
Dead before the death overs
For the first time in the tournament Punjab managed to address their much-known death overs problems by picking 6 wickets in the death overs and that too by conceding only 41 runs. Yet, any chance of a win was dead even before the death over begun.
“The last five games we’ve been struggling in the death overs, but we pulled things back, else 230 was on the cards,” reflected Rashid Khan later in the match.
His name is ‘Superman’ Khan
Excellent fielding, super contribution from the inexperienced pace trio was a big factor but none as bright or as prominent as Rashid Khan who got 3 wickets in just four overs by giving only 12 runs. Whatever little hope KXIP may have had because of Nicholas Pooran’s blitzkrieg (the fastest fifty of the IPL 2020 in the match), Khan ended that by getting him in the 15th over. Pooran scored 77 runs in just 37 balls with 7 sixes(one more than Bairstow)
“We have the best bowling combination in the last 4-5 years. It was a simple plan for us, we had defended 160 on this ground, we thought 180-185 would be a good score on this wicket and anything over that we were happy,” said Rashid.
“He’s a world-class bowler; it’s great to have him. He always delivers in pressure situations. He loves that stuff,” praised Warner after the match in his post match chat with the host broadcaster.
Chase was never on
Even though KXIP had two of the highest run-getters of the tournament as openers, it would still have taken a miracle to chase 202 runs. Disappointing was that they simply exploded under the scoreboard pressure.
"I think when we lose wickets in the powerplay, it’s always going to be tough and getting Mayank run-out was a disaster. We kept losing wickets after that and it was one of those days where everything (aerial shots) went into the hands of fielders,” lamented Rahul after the match.
It seems, Punjab is still haunted by the horror of the first game where they lost the match in the Super Over, and since then bad run continues.
(Vimal Kumar is a senior sports journalist who has covered multiple cricket world cups and Rio Olympics in the last two decades. Vimal is also the author of Sachin: Cricketer Of The Century and The Cricket Fanatic’s Essential Guide.)
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