The first match of the mid-week doubleheader featured the two bottom-placed sides as Punjab Kings (PBKS) finished their Mumbai leg to face Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Chepauk.
Toss and Team News
Both the teams made changes and handed debuts as they approached the afternoon match. PBKS won the toss and elected to bat first. The franchise introduced Fabian Allen, Moises Henriques and Murugan Ashwin in place of Riley Meredith, Jhye Richardson, and Jalaj Saxena.
SRH gave their debut cap to Kedar Jadhav as he replaced Manish Pandey in the playing eleven. The other changes included Kane Williamson in place of Mujeeb ur Rahman and Siddharth Kaul for Abdul Samad.
PBKS struggled massively to adapt
David Warner opened the innings with spin in the form of Abhishek Sharma (2-24) with two right-handed openers in place. The move almost paid dividends right away but a dropped catch by Rashid Khan (1-17) at deep midwicket gave Agarwal (22) a major reprieve.
The slow nature of the track foxed KL Rahul (4) as he departed early in Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s (1-16) second over. The skipper became the second fastest to 5000 runs in T20s, with only Gayle requiring fewer innings to reach the landmark.
PBKS managed only 32 runs in the powerplay as Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle (15) had to work hard for their runs. The team lost their plot altogether following the culmination of the powerplay.
Khaleel Ahmed (3-21) dismissed top scorer Mayank Agarwal with a sharp catch by Rashid Khan being the cherry on the cake. The spinner was once again called into action with a direct hit to get rid of Pooran and a rank turner to remove Chris Gayle.
Brief starts from Deepak Hooda (13) and Moises Henriques (14) took PBKS close to the three-figure mark before Abhishek Sharma scalped both the wickets. Shahrukh Khan (22) struck a couple of maximums to push them to 120 before Khaleel Ahmed and Siddharth Kaul (1-27) dismantled the tail with ease.
SRH finally execute a chase in Chennai
Much like their previous encounters, David Warner (37) and Jonny Bairstow (63) led their team to a solid start. The prolific opening duo racked up 50 runs in the powerplay as Rahul opted only a solitary over from spin in the first six overs.
The opening partnership of 73 was broken in the eleventh over courtesy Fabian Allen. Kane Williamson (16) made his first appearance of the season as SRH continued to proceed with caution towards the target.
Bairstow brought up his fifty in 48 deliveries and finished the chase off in the penultimate over to hand SRH their first points in the competition.
Brief Scoreboard:
PBKS 120 all out (19.4 overs) (M.Agarwal 22; K.Ahmed 3-21)
SRH 121-1 (18.4 overs) (J.Bairstow 63; F.Allen 1-21)
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