NEW DELHI: Abhishek Sharma dominated the Punjab Kings bowlers with another explosive half-century as Sunrisers Hyderabad secured a four-wicket win in the IPL on Sunday.
Batting first on a docile pitch, Punjab Kings set up a daunting score of 214/5, thanks to Prabhsimran Singh’s 45-ball 71 and Jitesh Sharma’s last over heroics as skipper.
SRH had little trouble in their run chase despite losing Travis Head for a golden duck as he was sent back packing from his first ball. They reached this target with five balls to spare.
This win lifted them to second place in the table with 17 points from 14 matches, until they could see the outcome of Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals match.
In Guwahati, Rajasthan can take away SRH coveted No.2 spot by beating KKR since they are sitting at 3rd position with one point less.
The top two teams have an extra route to reach the finals.
All this while Abhishek was ambling through his innings before hitting a fifty off just 21 balls which is also his third fifty of the tournament so far.
66 runs off only 28 balls that included six boundaries and five sixes turned tables completely in favor of SRH at Abu Dhabi.
Henrich Klaasen (42; 26 b) Rahul Tripathi (33;18b) Nitish Reddy (37;25b) were all worth mentioning during their walkover act.
Shashank Singh got rid of him against the run of play but it was more about Abhishek who played too early at a slower ball and ended up offering a catch to Shivam Singh at covers.
But considering that they were cruising at 129/2 halfway into their innings meant that chasing down such total was only going through formality therefore Klaasen continued with the same spirit and hit three fours and two sixes.
The South African wicket-keeper batsman however walked back to the pavilion as he was bowled by Harpreet Brar in the final over.
However, SRH required only seven runs from last 10 balls by then and Sanvir Singh smashed a four off the first ball of that over, sealing it for his side.
Earlier Arshdeep gave SRH an early blow, cleaning up dangerous Travis Head without allowing him to put any score on board.
SRH showed no nerves after losing a wicket off the first ball with Rahul Tripathi taking charge during his brief stay at the crease where he scored 33 off just 18 deliveries.
Playing just his second match of this season, Tripathi went hammer and tongs against Rishi Dhawan hitting consecutive boundaries that were made up of two fours followed by one six.
Arshdeep was hammered for two fours and one six by Abhishek as they raced to fifty in just four overs dealing only in boundaries.
Harshal Patel leaked 22 runs in his first over but returned with a wicket, dismissing Tripathi with a slower ball.
However when Klaasen joined them at 72/2 in five overs there was no going back for SRH with their third highest powerplay score being 84/2 so far this tournament.
As the new opening pair consisting of Vidarbha’s Atharva Taide and Prabhsimran added 97 runs from just 55 balls, PBKS did well not to lose any wickets during that phase of their innings.
Prabhsimran smashed seven fours and four sixes for his 45-ball 71 while Taide missed out on a half century after contributing with a solidly-made 46 against only twenty-seven balls.
Five fours and two sixes were hit by Taide, who was later on accompanied by Prabhsimran as the latter partnered together with Rilee Rossouw to make 54 off 32 balls that kept up the flow of runs during the middle overs.
When leg-spinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth (1/37) had a faint edge off a quicker delivery to dismiss Prabhsimran at 151/1 in 14 overs, it appeared like one-way traffic and Klaasen had hard work to do in completing a one-handed catch behind the stumps.
Cummins (1/36) pulled his spell on the death over by dismissing Rossouw for 49 leaving two new batsmen – Jitesh Sharma and Ashutosh Sharma – at the crease.
It was Natarajan (2/33), however, who removed Ashutosh from play in the penultimate over.
Before captain Jitesh Sharma’s assault in his last over took them to a fighting total, PBKS lost four wickets for 44 runs in five overs.
Finally, Jitesh scored two sixes against Nitish Kumar Reddy in his final over; finishing on an unbeaten knock of thirty-two from fifteen deliveries which included twenty runs.
