Sunrisers Hyd. beat Punjab Kings to poet their 4th consecutive win

Mumbai, April 17: Aiden Markram’s quick-fire 41 not out off 27 and Nicholas Pooran (35 not out off 30) guided Sunrisers Hyderabad to its fourth successive win as SRH defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by seven wickets in an IPL match here at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday. Punjab posted 151 with the help of Liam Livingstone’s 60-run knock. In reply, Pooran and Markram’s unbeaten 75-run stand helped Sunrisers to chase down the target with eight balls remaining. SRH’s Umran Malik was the star of the match for his sensational bowling, as he claimed four wickets after conceding 24 runs in his four-over quota, including a maiden over. Shikhar Dhawan led the Punjab team as skipper Mayank Agarwal missed the game, after he injured his toe while training on Saturday. Chasing the 152-run target, Sunrisers had a slow start as it lost skipper Kane Williamson early for the mere score of 3 and posted 39/1 runs in the Powerplay. Williamson lofted Kagiso Rabada’s ball to mid-off, where Dhawan jumped and took a fine catch in the fourth over. Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi made a 48-run partnership for the second wicket before Rahul Chahar gave PBKS a much-needed breakthrough as he removed Tripathi (34 off 22), who went for a big and handed simple catch to Shahrukh Khan on the long-off. Chahar roared back again in the 11th over to dismiss Abhishek for the score of 31 off 24, who tried to go over long-on with an aerial loft but ended up giving an easy catch to Shahrukh. Then, Pooran and Markram’s unbeaten 75 off 50 partnerships took SRH over the line with seven balls left. For PBKS, Chahar scalped two wickets and Rabada got one. Earlier, Punjab had a poor start after put into bat first as they lost two wickets in the powerplay. Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed the stand-in captain Dhawan cheaply for 8 in the third over. In the fifth over, T Natarajan removed Prabhsimran Singh (14). Livingstone’s two boundaries and a maximum in the sixth over took Punjab’s score to 48 for the loss of two wickets in the powerplay. In the next over, Jagadeesha Suchith added another dent to Punjab’s inning, removing Jonny Bairstow through lbw for the score of 12. Umran got Jitesh Sharma caught and bowled in the eight over and PBKS were reduced to 61/4. Livingstone and Shahrukh started a rebuilding act and the former brought up his half-century in the 15th over. The duo together contributed 71 off 49 for the fifth wicket partnership before Shahrukh got caught off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar in the 17th over for the score of 26 off 28. UNI BAV PN On the last ball of the penultimate over, Bhuvneshwar got his third as he trapped the set batter Livingstone. In the final over, Umran sent Odean Smith (13) back to the hut. He bowled Rahul Chahar and Vaibhav Arora for ducks. On the final ball Arshdeep Singh got a runout and PBKS were bundled out for 151. For SRH besides Umran, Bhuvneshwar got three wickets and Natarajan and Suchith got one each. (UNI)