Match Details
Arya: Earlier in the day, it was SRH skipper Kane Williamson who won the toss and following the trend of this tournament put Punjab Kings in. Shikhar Dhawan who captained Punjab in the absence of Mayank Agarwal suffered an early groin injury in the first over itself which restricted his bat flow. Eventually, he was dismissed pretty cheaply as he failed to clear the infield and was holed out at mid-on. It was a good start with the ball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen.
While Bhuvi accounted for Shikhar Dhawan, it was Natarajan who gave SRH their 2nd wicket bagging the wicket of Prabhsimran Singh after he played some good shots. Jonny Bairstow couldn’t quite get going and was dismissed by Jagadeesh Suchith in his very first over. He went for a sweep but missed the line of the ball completely and it struck him plumb in front.
The impetus in the middle overs was provided by Liam Livingstone who continued his exceptional run in the tournament. He started off with a couple of cute ramp shots in the very first over of Marco Jansen and set the tone for the rest of the innings. Jitesh Sharma was dismissed early by pace sensation Umran Malik who had a sensational day at the office.
Livingstone kept smashing the SRH bowlers all around the park and even took Umran Malik apart in his 3rd over. Shahrukh Khan also struck some lusty blows but in one of the deliveries, he refused a double when it was definitely on and for the next sequence of deliveries, he couldn't quite put bat to ball and put a lot of pressure on Livingstone at the other end. He was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar after scoring 26 of 28 deliveries.
Odeon Smith then missed a few which again kept Livingstone out of the strike. Eventually, he was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the penultimate over. However, the highlight of the innings was Umran Malik’s sensational final over where he didn’t concede a single run and went on to bag three more wickets finishing with exceptional figures of 4/28 in his quota of 4 overs.
Arya: The run-chase could have been a tricky one for the Sunrisers had they lost early wickets and it was Kagiso Rabada who provided an early breakthrough in the form of Kane Willamson’s wicket. He is their best batsman and his dismissal early on was a huge blow to the Sunrisers. His partner Abhishek Sharma who had played some good knocks in the last few encounters got going again and scored 31 of 25 deliveries. Rahul Tripathi got off to a blistering start and continued his flamboyant style of batting.
It was Rahul Chahar who turned the match with the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi in back to back overs. Still, with Nicholas Pooran and Aiden Markram in the middle, the run-chase was still going to be a pretty straightforward one for SRH with the style both these batters had. However had they lost any more wickets from there, things could have turned on it's head.
Both the batters were sensible in their approach and never looked in any trouble whatsoever. Aiden Markram in particular found the boundaries whenever the required rate went up and Nicholas Pooran also kept up with the pace. The duo shared an unbeaten stand of 75 runs to take their side over the finishing line with an over and delivery to spare. It was Aiden Markram who smashed a four and a six to seal the deal. He remained unbeaten on 41 of 27 deliveries while Pooran remained undefeated on 35 of 30 deliveries. For Punjab, Rahul Chahar was the most successful bowler bagging a couple of wickets.