IPL 2023: Sunrisers, third time lucky

Prabhsimran Singh had been Punjab’s enforcer this IPL, boasting a strike rate of 176 in two games. On Sunday evening, though, Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed him for a golden duck with his signature first-ball dismissal delivery. Back of a length, seam up, nipping in the line of the stumps and trapping him in front. The home crowd popped.

Subsequently, Hyderabad juiced the max out of the seaming conditions in the powerplay. Marco Jansen, playing his first game of the season, used the angular advantage from over the wicket against right handers to trap debutant Matthew Short and keeper batter Jitesh Sharma in his first two overs. With Punjab three wickets down in the powerplay, Umran Malik’s express pace (2/32) and Mayank Markande’s best IPL figures (4/15) further pinned the visitors down.

Amid wickets falling from one end, Punjab’s captain and top scorer produced the highest score of this IPL. Shikhar Dhawan had batted for all of 20 overs against Rajasthan, shifting gears towards the end of the innings for a 190 plus finish. In Hyderabad, Dhawan performed a similar gig to shoulder Punjab to a respectable total as he scored 99 off the team’s 143 runs.

Ek aur 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐫 ki ore badhte hue 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐛𝐚𝐫 💪

Shikhar Dhawan’s 50 makes him the 🔝scoring batter of #TATAIPL2023 🙌

Keep watching #SRHvPBKS – LIVE & FREE on #JioCinema across all telecom operators 👈#IPLonJioCinema #IPL2023 #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/kXyy1jPpMb

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) April 9, 2023

A last-ball six couldn’t take him to a triple figure score but Dhawan’s holding the fort-T20 style innings will surely regale cricket buffs years down the line. Drenched in his own glorious self and with the number 11 in at the other end, the Punjab skipper managed to keep strike for 28 off the 30 deliveries for the last-wicket stand.

Against Markande, who had kept batters second-guessing between his googly and stock ball all night, he shimmied down the track to slam a boundary. Malik’s short and quick stuff was dealt with intrepid pulls for maximums. Not once but twice in the same over. Bhuvneshwar’s death bowling vulnerabilities would be exposed with exquisite wristwork and timing to collect more fours. T Natarajan would fail to nail his yorker and Dhawan latched onto the low full tosses with utmost disdain.

The Hyderabad crowd would leave aside home franchise allegiance to soak in and cheer the brilliance of the southpaw, who was once their own. “I am glad that the Hyderabad crowd still remembers me,” Dhawan conceded post-innings.

Tripathi sees SRH through

Fuelled by their captain’s counterattack towards the end of first innings, Punjab did test Hyderabad early in the chase. Serial powerplay wicket-taker Arshdeep Singh cleaned up Harry Brook, the England batsmen enduring a torrid time in the league. Shortly, his opening partner Mayank Agarwal succumbed to the shackles of a run-a-ball 20 as he slog swept straight to long on.

Rahul Tripathi, the 🔝lieutenant of #TheOrangeArmy 🙌#SRHvPBKS #IPLonJioCinema #IPL2023 #TATAIPL2023 | @SunRisers @tripathirahul52 pic.twitter.com/oOEuSYSoUq

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) April 9, 2023

Rahul Tripathi took matters into his own hands, notching up Hyderabad’s first fifty-plus score of this edition. Having earned a reputation for his exploits at the number three slot in the last season, Tripathi pommeled his way through Punjab’s spinners from both ends in the middle overs, walloping at a strike rate touching 154.

At the other end, Aiden Markaram largely played second fiddle in an unbeaten 100-run partnership before providing finishing touches as he took down Nathan Ellis for three boundaries in a row before Tripathi caressed another, off Harpreet Brar, to close the game.