Hyderabad bowlers Umran Malik and Bhuvneshwar Kumar shared 7 wickets between them to set up a massive 7-wicket victory over Punjab in the Match No 28 of the ongoing Indian T20 cricket league 2022 tournament played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday afternoon.
The young and uncapped right-arm pacer Umran Malik produced yet another impressive display of high-intensity fast bowling, returning with impressive numbers of 4-1-28-4 whereas the veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar was once again among wickets, taking 3/22 from his four overs to help Hyderabad district Punjab to a moderate 151 in 20 overs.
Interestingly, all 4 wickets for Umran Malik came in the final over of the first innings in the game when Punjab lost Odean Smith (13), Rahul Chahar, Vaibhav Arora and Arshdeep Singh — all tailenders for identical scores of nought.
In their reply, despite losing their captain Kane Williamson for cheap early on in the chase, Hyderabad showed no signs of discomfort in knocking over the target from 18.5 overs with loss of 3 wickets while scoring 152. Hyderabad recorded a 7-wicket victory with 1.1 overs to spare in the 28th match of the league round.
After Hyderabad won the toss and invited them to bat, Punjab struggled for momentum throughout their innings despite yet another half-century from their star all-rounder Liam Livingstone, who scored 60 from 33 balls with the help of 5 boundaries and 4 sixes to consolidate for his side in what was turning out to be a disappointing outing with the bat.
Punjab were without their regular captain Mayank Agarwal who made way for the wicketkeeper-batsman Prabhsimran Singh, who made 14 on his comeback.
In the absence of Mayank Agarwal, the onus was on Shikhar Dhawan to play a long innings but Punjab were unfortunate to have lost their in-form opening batsman for just 14, which set the tone in the favour of the Hyderabad bowlers who produced a fine performance.
Jonny Bairstow could manage only 12 whereas wicketkeeper-batsman Jitesh Sharma was out for 11 as Hyderabad bowlers left the Punjab side reeling at 61/4 after 8 overs. This was when the pair of Liam Livingstone and Shahrukh Khan got together, as the two batsmen added 71 runs for the 5th wicket to consolidate their side.
While Liam Livingstone was able to record his third half-century in the ongoing Indian T20 cricket league 2022 tournament, the lanky and aggressive Tamil Nadu batsman Shahrukh Khan played the role of the second fiddle to perfection, scoring 26 from 28 balls with the help of 2 sixes and a four.
But Punjab were bowled out for 151 in 20 overs with T Natarajan and Jagadeesha Suchith also among wickets for Hyderabad.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was back at his best by taking the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan, Liam Livingstone and Shahrukh Khan. On the other hand, the young Umran Malik once again sparked spirited and positive reactions from the cricket fraternity after yet another impressive outing for the Orange Army.
Hyderabad were rocked early in the chase when Kagiso Rabada struck to dismiss Kane Williamson for 3 from 9 balls in the 4th over, pushing them on the backfoot.
However, Hyderabad batsmen were unperturbed on losing their captain and the team’s best batsman, responding with a couple of strong partnerships in the middle to go past the finish line.
After the pair of Rahul Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma provided Hyderabad with stability in the middle following the loss of Kane Williamson, it was the turn of Aiden Markram and Nicolas Pooran, added 75 runs on waiting for the 4th wicket from only 50 balls to take their side over the line.
Abhishek Sharma scored 31 from 25 balls with the help of three boundaries and a six whereas Rahul Tripathi made yet another impressive contribution of 34 from 22 balls, bundled with four boundaries and a six.
South Africa batsman Aiden Markram top scored for Hyderabad with 41 not out from 27 balls with four boundaries and a six as he finished the game in the company of West Indies wicket-keeper batsman and their vice captain Nicolas Pooran, once again displayed rich form with the bat scoring 35 not out from 30 balls with one boundary and a six each.
The victory propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to the fourth spot in the points table for the Indian T20 cricket League 2022 tournament, as they now have eight points from six matches with a net run rate of -0.077 — something that they would look to recover from in the next couple of matches.
Hyderabad will be next seen in action on Saturday, April 23 when they take on Bangalore in the evening match whereas Punjab will be facing Delhi in their next contest to be played on April 20.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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