Sun rises in North
Hyderabad down Punjab by 5 wickets
Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday down Kings XI Punjab by 5 wickets in an IPL T20 encounter at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket stadium to register their third victory this season.
With this win, they now see themselves at the third spot in points table.
Chasing the target of 144 runs, for Hyderabad, Openers Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner again gave the team a powerful start with Warner scoring 59 runs and Dhawan scored 45 runs before returning back to the pavillion.
Before the first partnership could be broker, Hyderabad were already on 90, which made it easy for rest of the batsmans to chase down the target.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad dished out another superlative bowling effort to restrict Kings XI Punjab to 143 for six.
Electing to bowl first after winning the toss, the SRH bowlers, including the promising Mustafizur Rahman, Moises Henriques and others picked up wickets at regular intervals and also did not allow Punjab to score big runs.
Moises Henriques scalped two wickets, while pacer Rahman deserves a special mention as he claimed two wickets, including a wicket in a maiden over, giving away just nine runs.
Shaun Marsh (40 off 34 balls) was the top-scorer for Punjab with three boundaries and two huge sixes, while all-rounder Axar Patel's unbeaten 36 off 17 balls laced with three sixes and a four helped them put a decent score on board.
Manan Vohra, who has been consistent for KXIP this season, contributed 25 runs that had a six and 3 fours.
As the side struggled following the exit of Captain David Miller and Glen Maxwell, young Nikhil Nayak (22) gave good company to Patel, sharing 50 runs, to help the side reach 143.
The Punjab side suffered an early setback with its opener Murali Vijay returning to the pavilion in the third over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Vijay paid the price
for his poor shot as wicket keeper Naman Ojha took a simple catch.
Other opener Vohra was run out in the sixth over bowled by Mustafizur Rahman following some brilliant fielding by Shikhar Dhawan, whose direct throw found him short of crease.