Kolkata: Two of their best batters received four reprieves, which helped Sunrisers Hyderabad post a daunting total of 235. The target probably didn’t faze Punjab Kings who had won all their five chases this season, including pulling off a record-breaking 265/4 against Delhi Capitals. Unlike Punjab however, Sunrisers caught almost everything that came their way. That virtually sealed Sunrisers’ 33-run win on Wednesday even before Punjab Kings could get through the Powerplay.
Brilliant tactics, not just the catching, came into play. For example, Pat Cummins positioned Eshan Malinga at deep square leg before bouncing Priyansh Arya with an angled short ball. Lured into the trap, Arya pulled too well and found Malinga. A ball later, Cummins became the catcher, beautifully judging a high top edge from Prabhsimran Singh off Nitish Kumar Reddy and taking a tumbling catch.
With Shreyas Iyer’s wicket the game was nearly decided even though Marcus Stoinis entertained before Cooper Connolly tried to take the game deep with a resilient hundred, attempting to atone for dropping Kishan in the eighth over. Without Iyer, however, it was always going to be a futile effort. And for a change, Iyer too probably got swayed into a shot early in his innings—trying to go down the pitch but the bat turned in his hand, leading to a simple catch at mid-off.
Remarkably, despite the early setbacks, Punjab Kings were still maintaining a run rate of over 10 even after the halfway mark. But by keeping them in check with wickets at regular intervals, Sunrisers ensured their total was never under any perceptible threat.
The top-class catching was key. Abhishek ran in from deep midwicket and took a good sliding catch of Suryansh Shedge. Reddy judged a massive hit from Shashank Singh perfectly to catch him just inside the boundary.
For Sunrisers, nothing could have been more pleasing than how they consolidated another blistering start from Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma while capitalising ruthlessly on Punjab Kings’ lapses.
Abhishek’s 35 off just 13 balls set the tone, while Head’s 38 off 19 ensured Sunrisers raced ahead before Lockie Ferguson broke through. Yuzvendra Chahal then struck soon after to remove Head, briefly pulling things back. But that was as good as it got for Punjab Kings.
The middle overs turned into a tale of missed chances and mounting regret. Ishan Kishan, dropped on 9 and 18 and reprieved by a missed stumping, made Punjab Kings pay dearly. Heinrich Klaasen too was put down on 9, and the duo made the most of their charmed lives by adding 88 for the third wicket. Kishan struck a fluent 55 off 32, but Klaasen delivered the knockout punch — his calculated 69 off 43 anchored the latter half of the innings.
Every dropped catch compounded Punjab’s misery — Lockie Ferguson and Shashank Singh were both guilty at the deep — while even straightforward chances went begging, leaving Chahal visibly exasperated despite an otherwise outstanding spell of 4-0-32-1.
A cameo from Reddy (29 off 13) added the finishing gloss as Sunrisers surged past 230 with ease. For Punjab Kings, it was a night where effort with the ball was undone by errors in the field. Chahal stood out, but the lack of support proved costly.