Punjab Kings pay for poor fielding as SRH ‘OutKlaas' them to top points table
A profligate Punjab Kings put down catches at the drop of a hat as Sunrisers Hyderabad buried them under a huge total, winning their IPL contest by 33 runs to move to the top of the points table here on Wednesday.
Heinrich Klaasen continued his manic consistency with a 43-ball-69 while Ishan Kishan struck 32-ball-55 in Sunrisers' more than healthy total of 235 for 4.
On a placid track, SRH skipper Pat Cummins (2/34 in 4 overs) and their best bowler of the season, Eshan Malinga (1/34 in 4 overs), not only provided breakthroughs but also bowled 21 dot balls to restrict the visitors to 202 for 7.
Cooper Connolly's (107 not out off 59 balls) century was the only saving grace for PBKS, who were never in the contest after a disappointing powerplay show.
PBKS thus lost their ninth consecutive IPL game in Hyderabad.
The seventh win took SRH to 14 points and on top of the 10-team table. One more victory in remaining three games will take them to magic figure of 16 points, which will be good enough to ensure a play-off spot.
Once skipper Cummins exposed the faulty technique of Priyansh Arya, whose game is devoid of any tangible footwork, there was no looking back for SRH.
Prabhsimran Singh followed and even Shreyas Iyer was dismissed cheaply.
The fate of the match was decided in two Powerplays. While Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head's pyrotechnics took SRH to 79 for 1 in their six overs, PBKS managed only 57 for 3.
However, Punjab Kings, who are going through a mini-slump with third defeat in a row, would blame their deplorable fielding that contributed heavily towards their defeat.
Kishan-Klaasen duo were dropped thrice all sitters and the vice-captain was also lucky to survive a regulation stumping chance bungled by Prabhsimran, whose glovework hasn't been upto the mark.
It was a luckless Yuzvendra Chahal, who was left high and dry by his 'butter-fingered' colleagues as Klaasen and Kishan lived a charmed lives to guide Sunrisers to a winning total.
After Abhishek (35 off 13 balls) and Head (38 off 19 balls) blasted Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen for another half-century partnership, Klaasen and Kishan cashed in on missed opportunities to score half-centuries that ensured a healthy defendable total for their bowling unit.
Nitish Reddy, whose all-round game has improved remarkably this season, played a nice little cameo (29 not out off 13 balls) to beef up the total.
There was nothing in the track for the bowlers and Chahal's 1 for 32 is worth its weight in gold considering that Shashank Singh dropped a sitter and Prabhsimran couldn't effect a regular stumping leaving him angry and distraught at the same time.
Punjab, whose outfielding through the tourney has been atrocious to say the least, dropped three catches which is unpardonable when the pitch resembles a shirtfront.
In all, SRH batters smashed 17 sixes with Abhishek opening the floodgates with four maximums. Head hit three while Kishan and the peerless Klaasen, in the midst of his best ever IPL season, struck four sixes each.
Jansen (0/61) and Arshdeep (1/43) gave away 100 runs collectively in their eight overs.
Kishan's fifty was a scratchy one but very useful and he showed glimpses of his original self with three consecutive sixes off Vijaykumar Vyshak.
At the outset, Abhishek got one in the arc from Jansen and sent it soaring over long-off and another clean bat swing got him a maximum over long on. The second one was a knuckle ball which he read from the hand as change of pace didn't work.
Having executed the swivel pull off Lockie Ferguson behind square to bring up the team's 50, Abhishek went for a fifth six but this time the ball ballooned for Shreyas Iyer to complete the catch at short mid-off.
Once Abhishek was gone, it was Head who took charge and two flat sixes over mid-wicket were class acts before he failed to score his third consecutive fifty going for one shot too many. But by then, he had set the platform.
