Markandeya and Tripathi gave Sunrisers Hyderabad their first win
Leg-spinner Mayank Markande’s superb bowling and Rahul Tripathi’s half-century helped Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Shikhar Dhawan’s unbeaten 99 not out to defeat Punjab Kings by eight wickets with 17 balls to spare in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Sunday. ) registered its first win in the current season. Dhawan held one end from start to finish and Punjab, who were invited to bat first, reached a respectable score of 143 runs for nine wickets.
He played 66 balls in his innings and hit 12 fours and five sixes. Apart from him, only Sam Karen (22 off 15 balls) reached double digits. Dhawan shared an unbroken 55-run partnership off 30 balls for the tenth wicket with Mohit Rathi. Rathi’s contribution in this was one run off two balls. Markandey took four wickets for 15 runs from Sunrisers. Apart from them, Marco Jansson and Umran Malik took two wickets each.
Sunrisers lost two quick wickets in front of a relatively small target but Tripathi (74 not out from 48 balls, 10 fours, three sixes) and captain Aiden Markram (37 not out from 21 balls, six fours) put on 100 runs for the third wicket. of unbroken partnership. With this, Sunrisers registered an easy win by scoring 145 runs for two wickets in 17.1 overs. This is Punjab’s first defeat in three matches. Sunrisers also did not have a good start and lost the wicket of Harry Brook (13) early, who was bowled by Arshdeep Singh.
The second opener Mayank Agarwal (21) was also given life by wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma on a personal total of 14 runs. Sunrisers were able to score only 34 runs for one wicket in the power play. Agarwal could not take advantage of the lifeline and was caught by Rahul Chahar at the boundary line. On the other hand, Tripathi hit a flurry of fours after this. He hit Chahar for four and Harpreet Brar for three consecutive fours in two overs. Tripathi completed his half-century off 35 balls by hitting Mohit Rathi for a six. Rathi conceded 21 runs in his next over which included a six and two fours off Tripathi.
Markram hit Nathan Ellis for four fours while Tripathi also completed the century partnership by hitting the winning four off Brar. Earlier, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Janson got Sunrisers off to a great start by taking wickets in the first two overs. Bhuvneshwar dismissed the in-form Prabhsimran Singh lbw on the very first ball of the match, while in the next over, Janson showed the way to the pavilion by dismissing Matthew Short (one) in the same fashion. Janson in his next over forced Jitesh Sharma (four) to take a simple catch at mid-off to leave the score at 22 for three.
Dhawan and new batsman Karen then played some good shots to bring the score to 43 in the powerplay. When Janson came for his third consecutive over, Karen welcomed him with sixes and fours. In such a situation, Markandeya handled the ball and Karen gave an easy catch at short third man on his googly. Due to top order faltering, Punjab Kings had to field Sikandar Raza as ‘impact player’ in place of Prabhsimran in the ninth over itself. His bet also did not work and he scored only five runs and was caught at the boundary line off Malik’s ball. Dhawan stood firm at one end but wickets kept falling from the other end.
Markandeya sent back Shah Rukh Khan (four) as soon as he arrived, who could not even save a review taken for lbw, while Malik scattered Harpreet Brar (one) on a 148 km ball. Markandeya did not even allow Rahul Chahar and Nathan Ellis to open the account. Dhawan hit Natarajan for two consecutive sixes. With the first of these sixes, he completed his half-century and with the second six, the team’s score reached triple digits. He then hit Malik for two sixes and a four. Dhawan needed seven runs to complete the century off the last four balls of the innings but was able to send Natarajan’s last ball for a six.
