Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Punjab Kings by barely two runs in a historic match at Mullanpur. The hosts were all but out of the game at one stage, but Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma once again formed a fantastic partnership and were sadly unable to lead their team home. Despite the fact that they exposed Hyderabad’s subpar death over bowling, the Pat Cummins-led team would be extremely happy with the two points given they are currently fifth in the standings.
Hyderabad was in trouble when they were batting first; at one point, they were 64/4. But Nitish Reddy was outstanding, scoring 64 runs off of 37 deliveries to help Hyderabad achieve an unprecedented 182 runs in the opening innings. Jaydev Unadkat smacked a six on the last pitch of the first innings, but Abdul Samad had a solid cameo of 25 runs off 12 deliveries. A promising indicator considering the young player’s position in the T20 World Cup lineup is that Arshdeep Singh took four wickets during the game.
Punjab found themselves in difficulty early on in the hunt. With the new ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Pat Cummins were outstanding, and they were reduced to 20/3. Even though Sam Curran and Sikandar Raza eventually scored 29 and 28 runs, respectively, it was Ashutosh and Shashank who stood tall and performed the difficult work. In the last over, the duo scored 26 runs, but ultimately, it was insufficient.
1. Arshdeep’s form amidst the suffering of Punjab Kings
Arshdeep did a fantastic job, taking four wickets for 29 runs in his four overs, despite the Punjab bowlers being all over the place against the SRH. There are signs that Arshdeep is prepared to compete in the mega tournament, especially since India needs to replace Mohammed Shami in the T20 World Cup roster.
2. Profound The internet is set on fire by Nitish Reddy
Nitish Rana’s talent was not well known among her supporters. Tonight in Mullanpur, he displayed his class as the all-round player first scored 64 runs at bat before taking Jitesh Sharma’s wicket. Reddy’s momentary rise to popularity on the internet excited batsman Hanuma Vihari of India, who believes he has a bright career ahead of him for the national squad.
Also read: IPL 2024: Punjab Kings’ 2nd inning Highlights against SRH in Match 23
3. It’s necessary to discuss Shashank.
Following a game-winning knock in the previous encounter, Shashank again got PBKS near to the target, but this time he was unable to complete the task. Still, he deserves a great deal of credit for his heroic 46 runs off 25 deliveries, which kept Punjab in the game till the very last over. With a little cash here and there, he could have brought PBKS home.
Losing skipper Shikhar Dhawan said:
I feel that Shashank and Ashutosh played a great knock, we restricted them to a good total, but we couldn’t cash in on the first 6 overs, lost 3 wickets and that’s where we fell behind and it cost us in the end. When the wicket wasn’t offering a lot of bounce, every individual will have to look back and change their approach. We dropped a catch off the last ball, we could have kept them down by 10-15 runs, but batting let us down.
It’s great to see youngsters chipping in with such consistency (on Shashank and Ashutosh). There was always hope that they could finish the game, but we got so close and that’ll give us confidence going into the future games, but we’ll have to do better going ahead.
Winning skipper Pat Cummins said:
Was a great game of cricket, they bowled really well at the start, we did well to get to 180. Got too close. Always tried to be positive. They bowled exceptionally with the new ball. With 150, you are going to lose nine out of ten times. We were pretty happy with 180. Conditions maybe (on taking the new ball). Bhuvi and I tried to take a couple of wickets with the new ball. (On Nitish) He was awesome, fantastic in the field, bowled three overs.
POTM Nitish Reddy said:
“For me it’s like a big contribution for my team and myself. I have been telling myself that I should believe in myself. Seamers were bowling really well, I didn’t want to take on them. I knew that the spinners would come and I wanted to attack them, I just did that. The whole tournament, they are bowling slow bouncers and it’s really working. I also used the dimensions. I just want to continue to perform for my team,” Reddy said.
India
