Sunrisers Hyderabad kept their playoff hopes alive as they secured a comprehensive 45-run victory against Kings XI Punjab at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday. Kings XI, on the other hand have to win both of their remaining matches in order to make it to the playoffs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad kept their playoff hopes alive as they secured a comprehensive 45-run victory against Kings XI Punjab at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday. Kings XI, on the other hand have to win both of their remaining matches in order to make it to the playoffs.
TOSS: Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin won the toss against hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday and opted to bowl first. He made three changes as Prabhsimran Singh makes his debut for the Punjab side.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, also made three changes. Mohammad Nabi comes in for Shakib Al Hasan, Sandeep Sharma replaces Siddharth Kaul and Abhishek Sharma in place of Deepak Hooda.
FIRST INNINGS: David Warner signed off his IPL 2019 campaign in style as he guided SRH to a commanding 212/6. He scored 81 runs in just 56 balls and got Sunrisers off to a brisk start after being sent into bat. Warner and Wriddhiman Saha took the Kings XI bowlers to the cleaners to pile up 77 runs of the first six overs of powerplay.
Saha’s innings came to an end when he under-edged a Murugan Ashwin delivery to debutant Prabhsimran Singh behind the stumps. Saha shared 78 runs off 6.2 overs with Warner for the opening stand.
Then came in in-form Manish Pandey (36 off 25) and he too played a quick knock in Warner’s company. Pandey, who struck three fours and a six, added 82 off 55 balls along with Warner before Kings XI skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (2/20) struck twin blows in the 16th over to remove both the set batsmen.
SECOND INNINGS: In response, Kings XI lost Chris Gayle early in the 213 run chase. However, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal kept Punjab in the hunt before Agarwal was removed by Rashid Khan in the 9th over. After Agarwal’s departure wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals as Punjab could only manage 167/8 in their 20 overs.
GAME CHANGER: After losing Gayle early, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal kept Punjab in the hunt. However, splendid fielding display by the hosts and bowling efforts by Rashid Khan and Khaleel Ahmed helped SRH claim a comprehensive 45-run win. Both the bowlers shared three wickets each. While Rashid scalped the important wickets of Agarwal, David Miller, and R Ashwin, Khaleel chipped in by dismissing the dangerous Rahul, Gayle and Nicholas Pooran.
R Ashwin: It’s not right to think about the past. It is important to stay in the present and try and move forward. It is not sort of deja vu or anything, one of the days we were outplayed in every department. It has not happened in the tournament before, but we were outplayed in bowling, batting and fielding. I thought 195-200 was about par. We started poorly in the powerplay and then pulled it back nicely in the middle and backend of the game. If you see throughout, we have struggled to chase down totals in excess of 190. We have been around 175-180 and that is some sort of balance issue for us. It is pretty straightforward, you have to keep winning at this stage of the IPL. It is quite hard if you are not able to gather those points. We have to keep our chin up and move forward. There is a lot of young energy inside the team. Everybody is looking forward to go out there and play. We got PrabhSimran to play, he has got some really ability and steam. A win helps to galvanise the team but having said that, we will not go away that easily in the tournament, we will keep sticking our necks out in rest of the games.
Kane Williamson: Throughout the season you are looking for those two points. It was crunch time and big game for us and it was what we can call as a complete performance. They (Warner and Bairstow) have been world class throughout the whole campaign, have put us in really strong positions. It is important, there is a lot of work to do and it should be a collective effort to fill in someone’s boots directly. You are always looking for more and that is what you are trying to do in every game you play. Two games left and they are equally important, we have a day off and then we look forward to Mumbai. It was a really good performance from us all round, we lost to them last time, so we knew it’s going to be a tough match. The most pleasing part has been our fielding performance. We pride ourselves on that and it will be important going into the final part of the tournament. There are some guys on the sidelines raring to go. There will no doubt be some changes, they will be excited to get on the park and perform. We still have two games left before we consider those options. It is one game at a time and like you said there is depth in the squad – a strength of ours and we will be calling upon that. It is really exciting and a lot of hard work to go before any talk of finals.
TOSS: Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin won the toss against hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday and opted to bowl first. He made three changes as Prabhsimran Singh makes his debut for the Punjab side.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, also made three changes. Mohammad Nabi comes in for Shakib Al Hasan, Sandeep Sharma replaces Siddharth Kaul and Abhishek Sharma in place of Deepak Hooda.
FIRST INNINGS: David Warner signed off his IPL 2019 campaign in style as he guided SRH to a commanding 212/6. He scored 81 runs in just 56 balls and got Sunrisers off to a brisk start after being sent into bat. Warner and Wriddhiman Saha took the Kings XI bowlers to the cleaners to pile up 77 runs of the first six overs of powerplay.
Saha’s innings came to an end when he under-edged a Murugan Ashwin delivery to debutant Prabhsimran Singh behind the stumps. Saha shared 78 runs off 6.2 overs with Warner for the opening stand.
Then came in in-form Manish Pandey (36 off 25) and he too played a quick knock in Warner’s company. Pandey, who struck three fours and a six, added 82 off 55 balls along with Warner before Kings XI skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (2/20) struck twin blows in the 16th over to remove both the set batsmen.
SECOND INNINGS: In response, Kings XI lost Chris Gayle early in the 213 run chase. However, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal kept Punjab in the hunt before Agarwal was removed by Rashid Khan in the 9th over. After Agarwal’s departure wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals as Punjab could only manage 167/8 in their 20 overs.
GAME CHANGER: After losing Gayle early, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal kept Punjab in the hunt. However, splendid fielding display by the hosts and bowling efforts by Rashid Khan and Khaleel Ahmed helped SRH claim a comprehensive 45-run win. Both the bowlers shared three wickets each. While Rashid scalped the important wickets of Agarwal, David Miller, and R Ashwin, Khaleel chipped in by dismissing the dangerous Rahul, Gayle and Nicholas Pooran.
R Ashwin: It’s not right to think about the past. It is important to stay in the present and try and move forward. It is not sort of deja vu or anything, one of the days we were outplayed in every department. It has not happened in the tournament before, but we were outplayed in bowling, batting and fielding. I thought 195-200 was about par. We started poorly in the powerplay and then pulled it back nicely in the middle and backend of the game. If you see throughout, we have struggled to chase down totals in excess of 190. We have been around 175-180 and that is some sort of balance issue for us. It is pretty straightforward, you have to keep winning at this stage of the IPL. It is quite hard if you are not able to gather those points. We have to keep our chin up and move forward. There is a lot of young energy inside the team. Everybody is looking forward to go out there and play. We got PrabhSimran to play, he has got some really ability and steam. A win helps to galvanise the team but having said that, we will not go away that easily in the tournament, we will keep sticking our necks out in rest of the games.
Kane Williamson: Throughout the season you are looking for those two points. It was crunch time and big game for us and it was what we can call as a complete performance. They (Warner and Bairstow) have been world class throughout the whole campaign, have put us in really strong positions. It is important, there is a lot of work to do and it should be a collective effort to fill in someone’s boots directly. You are always looking for more and that is what you are trying to do in every game you play. Two games left and they are equally important, we have a day off and then we look forward to Mumbai. It was a really good performance from us all round, we lost to them last time, so we knew it’s going to be a tough match. The most pleasing part has been our fielding performance. We pride ourselves on that and it will be important going into the final part of the tournament. There are some guys on the sidelines raring to go. There will no doubt be some changes, they will be excited to get on the park and perform. We still have two games left before we consider those options. It is one game at a time and like you said there is depth in the squad – a strength of ours and we will be calling upon that. It is really exciting and a lot of hard work to go before any talk of finals.