A fairly one-sided game, favouring Sunrisers Hyderabad, remained so till the end even though the game went into the 19th over. Kings XI Punjab fell short once again in presenting a defendable target after having batted first post winning the toss, at their home ground. Despite having six wickets in hand in the end, Punjab could only manage a total of 130/4, with skipper KL Rahul (57 off 55) doing most of the job. Even though Chris Gayle (28 off 34) stuck around for a long time, he failed to accelerate the game like he usually does. Mayank Agarwal’s 17-ball 27 was the only bit that pushed the run rate just above 6. 

In reciprocation to the target 131 put in front of them, the Sunrisers Hyderabad answered fairly smoothly. The start was rather slow but the asking rate was never too high and the chase was carried out smooth and safe. Opener Jonny Bairstow, who remained unbeaten for 79 off 57, not only laid the foundation of the innings but also accelerated it when the time came and pulled off a successful chase without any pressure on other batsmen and even without long partnerships. At no point could the Punjab bowlers add any pressure on Bairstow. In the end, Sunrisers Hyderabad won the game by eight wickets with nine balls remaining. 

To me, the turning point of the game was the 9th over of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s innings. David Warner was dismissed in the sixth over, following which the next two overs didn’t yield much for the batting side. But Krishnappa Gowtham conceded 15 runs in the ninth over, which included two sixes by Bairstow, putting SRH on top at 59/1 at the end of 9 overs. The chase became reasonably easier for the away team post that. 

According to me, the low of this game was Chris Gayle’s underperformance despite being in the middle for the first 11.4 overs and despite having decent support from his opening partner KL Rahul. His slow batting cost at least 20 runs to the Punjab side, the runs that could have won them the game. He finally lost his wicket to a run out while only adding 28 runs off 34 balls, which only included three boundaries and not a single maximum. 

At the end of the Powerplay, the Kings XI Punjab had lost zero wickets and also added 43 runs, courtesy the 13-run 6th over bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Despite a laidback Gayle, skipper KL Rahul took charge and accelerated the innings by hitting fours and sixes against Kumar - SRH’s frontline pacer. Given the run rate of 7.16, Punjab could’ve done way better than 130/4 in 20 overs, but the run-scoring pace declined after the Powerplay.

The Punjab batting line up was able to add just 53 runs, at a run rate of 5.88, with the loss of only one wicket in the nine overs following the end of Powerplay, despite losing just one wicket. While the score at the end of the first six overs was 43/0, with a run rate of 7.16, it declined majorly with Gayle blocking runs and Rahul also losing the momentum he was able to add at one point. Mayank Agarwal’s 17-ball 27 was still something but it couldn’t do much for Punjab. Also, the SRH bowlers did their job of containing the runs extremely well. 

After containing the runs significantly in the middle overs of Punjab’s innings, the Hyderabad bowling attack excelled in the death overs as well. The heaviest over in the deaths was bowled by Khaleel Ahmed, the 17th over, in which 12 runs were conceded but it also included the wicket of Mayank Agarwal who was looking in good touch. All in all, only 29 runs were conceded in the last five overs along with three dismissals. 

Well, it was a significantly one-sided game throughout, especially as the Punjab batsmen couldn’t post a defendable total and the bowling wasn’t exceptional either. All in all, it was an average low-scoring T20 game to the viewers. However, Jonny Bairstow’s six-hitting was worth an extra point.