Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 201/6 in 20 overs (Jonny Bairstow 97, David Warner 52; Ravi Bishnoi 3/29)
beat
Kings XI Punjab 132 all out in 16.5 overs (Nicholas Pooran 77, KL Rahul 11; Rashid Khan 3/12) by 69 runs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on a quintessential Jonny Bairstow (97) and David Warner (52) picnic at the top alongside Rashid Khan's 3/12 to skittle Kings XI Punjab by a whopping 69-run margin in the 22nd game of the Indian Premier League 2020 at the Dubai International Stadium.
Plonking runs on the board and then relying on the bowling arsenal to do the job has always been SRH's go-to mantra. The cruel opening pair of Warner-Bairstow fulfilled the initial requirement in grand style, sharing a magnanimous 160 in what was a leather hunt for the ages. In response, Nicholas Pooran quarrelled a lone war for his six-studded 77 as KXIP choked to their fifth defeat on Thursday, 8 October at Dubai.
Clinical SRH draw early inroads
It was imperative that a secure foundation be laid by openers Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul to boost KXIP's prospects of accomplishing the uphill task. Though reality seldom matches the hype and expectations are generally followed by disappointment. Ascribe it to David Warner's electric fielding or the schoolboy error of ball-watching, Rahul committed to a second run before withdrawing at the last moment to sell Agarwal down the river.
Fastracked up the pecking order with the license to kill, Prabhsimran Singh picked the bones out of Khaleel Ahmed's wide tempter only to nail it straight down cover point's lap. Abhishek Sharma floated a couple of gimmies bang into the arc as Nicholas Pooran meted him the deserved treatment, but anchor Rahul perishing to a top-edged sweep wasn't too bad a remuneration either for the budding left-arm.
Pooran leaves no stone unturned in KXIP's riposte
One minute silence for those who missed what transpired next. Pooran blitzed a gallery of range-hitting to strip 28 off Abdul Samad's 9th over, also wedging to a 17-ball fifty - the fastest in IPL 2020 - in the process. The pendulum had just briefly oscillated in KXIP's favour when livewire Priyam Garg conjured a direct hit to depart the struggling Glenn Maxwell. Rashid Khan then added insult to injury, castling Mandeep Singh with a foxy wrong'un to push SRH into the driver's seat.
With 85 needed off 42 balls, Khaleel Ahmed nicked Mujeeb Ur Rahman behind in a comical episode of umpire verdicts and an eleventh-hour review. Running out of support big time, lone-ranger Pooran too bit the dust off Rashid as a flamboyant square-cut met backward point. There was no possibility in hell of the tail wagging against a champion of an attack, as SRH left the company of their bottom-dwelling counterparts to shift to where they hierarchically belong.
Warner-Bairstow deliver a #throwback moment
KXIP unleashed their trump cards in young Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh and Mujeeb Ur Rahman at the expense of Chris Jordan, Harpreet Brar and Sarfaraz Ahmed in a bid to optimize the squad balance. Having blown hot and cold thus far in the season as a twin, normal services resumed for David Warner and Jonny Bairstow as SRH walloped to an unscathed 58 - their best Powerplay score of the ongoing edition. The solitary glitch during that breeze was the right-hander's timid loft, which eluded KL Rahul's goalkeeper dive at mid-off. Reprieved on a personal score of 19, Bairstow cleared the ropes at will henceforward to notch his fifty off 28 deliveries. He took a particular liking to Glenn Maxwell's part-time off-break and Ravi Bishnoi as the duo clinched their fifth 100-run partnership in IPL history.
Bishnoi's temperament proves a silver lining
Rahul shuffled the deckchairs in terms of bowling resources but the Warner-Bairstow juggernaut rode roughshod over anyone who obstructed its path. The massacre was verging on the genocide territory when a lion-hearted Bishnoi sent both openers packing to offer KXIP a huge sigh of relief. While the southpaw miscued a googly to long-on right after availing his half-century, Bairstow fell three short of a well-deserved hundred to a leg-before referral.
Having ploughed for an overall tally of 35 overs to end their wicket drought, KXIP nabbed three in seven balls as Arshdeep guiled Manish Pandey into a feeble return chip. The wunderkind Bishnoi could've mugged another scalp had Nicholas Pooran at long-off not made a meal of Abdul Samad's flat thump. Nonetheless, Arshdeep's bucket hands ensured the leggie finally had Samad's number, concluding with prolific figures of 3/29 with an over left to spare.
KXIP pull off an incredible heist, well almost...
Pooran made amends for the shelled chance to remove Priyam Garg, but Kane Williamson joined forces with Abhishek Sharma to give SRH the psychological edge of breaching 200. However, that the orange brigade could only juice out 41 at the cost of 6 wickets in the last five overs after being 160 for zero at 15th's completion puts into perspective KXIP's jaw-dropping late retaliation.
What's next in store?
Kolkata Knight Riders must be rubbing their hands in glee as they await a battered and bruised Kings XI Punjab in the first of the weekend's double-header. Looking in fine fettle now, Sunrisers Hyderabad should be wary of the complacency factor in their rubber against Rajasthan Royals on 11 October, Sunday.
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