Punjab Kings hold on to rejuvenate IPL playoff hopes
In a match between the worst teams in the competition in terms of the points table, Punjab Kings stood up to the challenge against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Restricted to just 125 runs, KL Rahul’s men bowled according to plan to win the match by five runs. This result puts more concerns on the faces of Hyderabad’s management, who have only won one match in IPL 2021 so far.
Holder extinguishes the Punjab batting line-up
Putting Punjab Kings into bat, Sunrisers Hyderabad preferred to take early wickets to completely kill off their opponents. The strategy initially looked to have backfired considering KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal gave their team an aggressive start.
However, Jason Holder got both of the Punjab openers out in one over to send the 2014 runner-ups on the back foot.
Once both the openers got out, there was basically no more momentum left for the KL Rahul’s men. It sounds surreal considering you have to rely on your middle and late order to bail you out in the shortest format of the game. However, Punjab completely rely on their skipper to get a defendable target.
Jason Holder was instrumental as he picked up three wickets and gave away only 19 runs in his four overs. Aiden Makram was probably the pick of the Punjab batsmen as he scored 27 runs in 32 balls. However, even he had to struggle against a formidable Hyderabad bowling attack. The Men in Red finished their innings with a total of 125/7.
Shami, Bishnoi come to the rescue
Usually, a target of 126 is a walk in the park for a T20 team. However, you cannot take away the drama in IPL regardless of it being a low-scoring match. Mohammad Shami brought his team back in the match after early strikes sent off David Warner and Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson.
In a few overs, Ravi Bishnoi removed Manish Panday to put a further dent on the Hyderabad run chase. At the halfway mark, the Sunrisers were struggling at 44/3, with another 82 runs required. The leg-spinner also got rid of Kedar Jadhav and Abdul Samad to sink the 2016 champions further.
Will Jason Holder be as influential with the bat as he was with the bowl earlier on? It started to look like it when he smashed Bishnoi for a six.
In the next over, the Caribbean all-rounder smashed Nathan Ellis for consecutive sixes to get the Hyderabad fans going. However, the Men in Orange lost Wriddhiman Saha via a runout. The Sunrisers’ opener scored 31 runs off 37 balls, with just a single boundary to his name.
With 30 runs required off the last three overs, the pressure was on Jason Holder to deliver for Williamson’s men. With Shami back into the attack, the former Chennai man backed himself to smash the Indian fast bowler out of the ground on the second ball of the 18th over. However, Shami came back well to put the pressure back onto the batting side.
Arshdeep Singh bowled a sublime second-last over to first send Rashid Khan back into the hut, before giving away only four runs for the remainder of the over. With 17 runs required off the last over, Holder ensured that the match was left undecided until the end as he smashed Ellis out of the ground on the second ball.
However, the star all-rounder could only manage three more runs after that as Punjab held on.
