Brilliant Rashid steals Kings XI’s thunder
Kings XI Punjab’s Ankit Rajpoot became the first uncapped player to take five wickets (5/14) in an IPL match, but his team still lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 13 runs in a low-scoring game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Thursday.
It was that man — Rashid Khan — again who came to Sunrisers rescue with a magnificent display of leg-spin bowling. His 3/19 helped Sunrisers defend their modest total of 132 as Punjab were all out for 119 in 19.2 overs.
Kings XI Punjab were 55/0 at one stage, but Khan bowled a peach of a delivery to dismiss KL Rahul. From then on, Hyderabad bowlers completely dominated the game to script a memorable win.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to recover from the early blows from medium pacer Ankit Rajpoot (5/14) as Kings XI Punjab restricted the hosts to a paltry 132/6. Ankit ran through the home batting line-up bagging the key wickets of skipper Kane Williamson (0), Shikhar Dhawan (11) and Wriddhiman Saha (6) off his first three overs before returning to pick Manish Pandey (54) and Mohammad Nabi (4) in the final over of the innings.
Put in to bat, the hosts were saved from the blushes by Pandey’s fighting 51-ball knock, laced with three fours and a six after Rajpoot reduced them to 27/3 in the first five overs. Rajpoot would have jolted the hosts with the wicket of Shakib Al Hasan (28 off 29 balls; 4x3) on the very next ball, but Andrew Tye dropped an easy catch at mid-wicket. Shakib once again got a reprieve in the next over from left-armer Barinder Sran, who induced a thick edge off to third man, only for the umpires to call it a front foot no-ball.
With the hosts finding themselves at a precarious 27/3, Shakib and Manish Pandey survived few close calls, including a run-out attempt, to take the Sunrisers’ to 57/3 midway into the innings.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s ploy to employ part-timer Manoj Tiwary misfired as the leg-spinner leaked 10 runs from his only over, forcing the Punjab skipper to bring his 17-year-old mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman into the attack.
Mujeeb responded in style by ending the 52-run fourth wicket stand, when he induced the Bangladeshi skipper with a wrong ‘un to be comfortably caught by Mayank Agarwal at the mid-wicket fence.
Shakib’s dismissal brought in the experienced Yusuf Pathan (21 not out off 19; 4x1, 6x1).