IPL 2017 | Warner and Bhuvneshwar end Hyderabad’s losing streak

04/17/2017

David Warner’s 70* and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 5/19 paved the way for a Sunrisers Hyderabad win, at the bowling friendly Uppal Stadium pitch, against Kings XI Punjab. Manan Vohra played a brilliant knock of 95 to bring the visitors within touching distance of the win but eventually fell short by 5 runs.

Brief scores : Sunrisers Hyderabad 159/6 (David Warner 70*, Naman Ojha 34; Mohit Sharma 2/25, Axar Patel 2/33) beat Kings XI Punjab 154/10 (Manan Vohra 95, Eoin Morgan 13; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 5/19 , Rashid Khan 2/42) by 5 runs.

After suffering 2 consecutive losses, Sunrisers Hyderabad made a host of changes to their playing XI bringing in Mohammad Nabi, Barinder Sran, and Siddarth Kaul to replace Ben Cutting, Ashish Nehra and Bipul Sharma. Punjab brought back Ishant Sharma after Varun Aaron failed to inspire in his two games.

Punjab choke out SRH attack

Utilizing the pitch well, Sandeep Sharma started off the day brilliantly for the visitors giving away just 3 runs in the first over. Ishant Sharma joined the action and like his bowling partner was proving to be difficult to get away. The batsmen were not looking to give away their wickets easily as they saw off the early pressure, scoring just 21 runs in four overs. The plan, however, backfired, when Shikhar Dhawan gloved a bouncer straight into the hands of the Saha behind the stumps. David Warner tried a few expansive drives but he was not able to pierce the infield as the home side could only manage 50 runs in 9 overs with just 2 boundaries and a six. It got worse in the next over as Axar Patel dismissed both Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh on consecutive deliveries.

Captain Warner proves his worth in tough conditions

With just 54 runs on the board, SRH started taking some risks, particularly Naman Ojha, who took on the role of the enforcer to start the second half of the innings with a boundary. Warner, too, started to put away the bad deliveries as Hyderabad scored 54 runs in five overs to gain some sort of foothold in the game. The 60-run partnership, eventually came to an end in the 16th over when Saha stumped Ojha off a Cariappa delivery. The SRH captain, however, kept going and brought up his half-century in 45 balls but he was running out of partners and overs with Deepak Hooda and Mohammad Nabi not troubling the scorers for long. But the Aussie was instrumental in scoring Hyderabad’s 25 off the last 2 overs, and that took the total to a respectable 159/6.

Afghans put Hyderabad in control of the match

Glenn Maxwell finally decided to promote himself up the order, after experimenting with Axar Patel and Wriddhiman Saha, following the dismissal of Hashim Amla on the first ball of the innings. The Aussie started off with a boundary on his first ball before following it up with one in the next over as well. But while attempting to hit a length ball outside off stump out of the park, the Punjab captain could only manage to find his compatriot Warner in the deep. Manan Vohra, however, took matters into his own hands as he took 19 runs off a Rashid Khan over to take Punjab to 51 in the powerplay overs. But the partnership didn’t last as long as Punjab would have liked with Morgan becoming Nabi’s first IPL wicket. The next over sent Punjab tottering as both Miller and Saha were dismissed by Rashid to restrict Punjab to just 62/5.

The Vohra show ends in vain

From then on, it was all about Manan Vohra's brilliance. On the first ball of the 11th over, Vohra was caught plumb in front of his stumps but the umpire sided with the Indian opener while giving his decision. It proved to be one that changed the game completely. Starting from a miserable position for Punjab, the 23-year-old kept rotating the strike, but when the opportunity presented itself he put away the bad balls to the boundary. It was looking ominous for Punjab as the run rate crept above 11 runs. But with the 15th and the 16th overs from Sran and Khan yielding 20 and 21 runs respectively, the game was back in the balance. The problem for Punjab, however, was the lack of support for the opener as players started dropping like flies around him. It was eventually a step too far for the Punjab opener who fell for a well made 95 off just 50 balls with Punjab still needing 15 off 8 balls. At the end, Hyderabad closed out a 5-run win to end their 2 match losing streak.