Sunrisers Hyderabad made the best use of the pitch and home conditions as they won a low scoring match against Kings XI Punjab at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Friday.
Here we bring before you the hits and flops from the match which has put Hyderabad on the top of the points table.
HITS
Hanuma Vihari: Hanuma Vihari was adjudged the man-of-the-match for his responsible knock of 46 runs off 39 balls. He kept the SRH innings in a balance and kept on scoring those odd boundaries which kept the opposition under pressure. His ability to galvanize his innings at his pace makes him a cornerstone in the middle-order of SRH.
Thisara Perera: Thisara Perera was the hero of the match who smashed three sixes in the 19th over of the innings to help his side register a comfortable victory for his side. He scored 23 runs off just 11 balls. He didn’t pick up any wicket but was looking very dangerous in the death overs.
Amit Mishra: Mishra again did the trick in his final over and got out two batsmen. His last over has always turned out to be a very crucial in context of the match. His quick blows in 18th over ensured that Punjab did not go past 130. He ended up with the figures of 2/29 in four overs.
Karan Sharma: Karan Sharma also did justice to his talent and picked up couple of wickets in his second over. He got the wicket of dangerous Adam Gilchrist and Paul Valthaty who were dealing in boundaries before he came into the attack.
Adam Gilchrist: Gilchrist showed the glimpses of his ability to destruct the opposition as he scored some back to back boundaries and reached 26 off 25 balls. But Karan Sharma outdid him with short delivery which he mistimed and got caught at deep mid-wicket.
Manpreet Gony: Gony brought twist in the tail with his brilliant bowling spell in which he took two wickets for just 24 runs. He has that ability to give the breakthroughs every now and then and he had done justice to that.
Praveen Kumar: Praveen Kumar was once again at his very best as he conceded just 12 runs in his three overs and got that breakthrough of Q de Kock in his very first over. He could have been used in mid-overs with Gony to stop the flow of runs but Gilchrist didn’t opt for that and paid the price.
FLOPS
Azhar Mahmood: Mahmood was disappointing with the bat as well as the ball. He got out after scoring just four runs and gave away 36 runs in 3.5 overs. He did get a wicket but going for plenty of runs in a low scoring game is not expected from an experienced campaigner like him.
Dimitri Mascarenhas: Mascarenhas was having no clue of what to do in this match. He kept conceding runs and ended up giving 25 runs without taking a wicket.
Paul Valthaty: Valthaty carried a repo of pinch-hitter but he started off very slowly and which put him under pressure and threw away his wicket after scoring just 6 runs off 17 balls. If he wouldn’t have wasted that many deliveries, Punjab would have been in a better position.
Q de Kock: His poor run continued in his second match of IPL as he got out for a duck. In his last outing he departed for just two runs. This kind of failure is not acceptable, especially when he was replacing an opener who has done better than him. He needs to bat for atleast good 10-12 overs to make his opportunity count.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network
