Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) restricted Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) to 126/7 in a crucial Indian Premier League match for both teams at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday, 24 October.
KXIP replaced an injured Mayank Agarwal with Mandeep Singh while Chris Jordan came in for Jimmy Neesham. Sunrisers made one change – with Khaleel Ahmed coming in for Shahbaz Nadeem.
Both sides are looking for a big win as the race for the final top four spot heats up – SRH are placed fifth in the standings while KXIP are right behind them at sixth.
SRH put KXIP in to bat, and Sandeep Sharma gave them the first breakthrough by removing opener Mandeep for a 14-ball 17. The 37-run opening stand was the most significant one in the innings.
The Sunrisers bowlers kept the pressure on throughout the innings, not allowing the KXIP batsmen to increase the pace of the innings.
Chris Gayle and KL Rahul added 29 runs together before falling on successive deliveries, which left KXIP at 66/3 in 10.1 overs. While Gayle was caught out by Warner at long-off off a delivery by Jason Holder for a 20-ball 20, Rashid Khan cleaned up Rahul for a 27-ball 27.
Number four Nicholas Pooran batted till the end and remained unbeaten on 32* (off 28 balls) even as wickets continued to fall around him.
Sandeep Sharma removed Glenn Maxwell for 12, and finished with figures of 2/29. In the next over, Rashid sent Deepak Hooda back to the hut for a duck, and eventually returned with figures of 2/14. Holder picked up two wickets for 27 runs in his four overs while Khaleel Ahmed and T Natarajan remained wicketless.
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