Dubai: An opening partnership of 160 runs between Johnny Bairstow (97) and David Warner (52) sealed the deal for Sunrisers Hyderabad as they outplayed Kings XI Punjab by a margin of 69 runs in an Indian Premier League encounter here on Thursday.
Nicholas Pooran came up with whirlwind 37-ball 77 for the Kings but it was to no avail as his side were bowled out for 132 in just 16.5 overs chasing Hyderabad’s massive 201/6.
Chasing 202 for target Kings XI kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Expect Pooran no other Kings XI batsman could cross the 15-run mark.
If it had not been for Pooran’s heroics Punjab would have struggled to even get past 100 in their innings. Rashid Khan once again was the pick of the bowlers for Hyderabad picking figures of 4-1-12-3.
Earlier in the day it was all about the Bairstow- Warner show. The English man and the Aussie were at the top of their game right from the outset, smacking the Kings XI bowlers to all parts. In 15 overs they had smashed their way to 160/0 but then the batting began to fall like a pack of cards.
The way the openers were going 230 could have been easily breached but Kings XI pulled things back in the last few overs and restricted them to 201.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad ( Johnny Bairstow (97); Ravi Bishnoi 3/29) beat Kings XI Punjab 132 all out (Nicholas Pooran (77), Rashid Khan 3/12)
