Sharjah: Punjab Kings held their nerves till the end to seal a 5-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League(IPL) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday. Nathan Ellis on his IPL stepped up to the occasion in the penultimate over successfully defending 17 runs to clinch a victory in a low scoring thriller.
Jason Holder’s 47 not out went in vain as Hyderabad are now reeling at the bottom after failing to chase down a target of mere 126.
Mohhammed Shami(2/14) and youngster Ravi Bishnoi(3/24) proved crucial for KL Rahul’s side for defending such a low score with the former packing both David Warner and Kane Williamson home inside the powerplay giving Hyderabad an early scare in the chase. Bishnoi joined the party soon removing Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadav cheaply bringing his side back into the game.
Hyderabad started reviving the hopes as Wriddhiman Saha and Jason Holder dropped the anchor to close the gap a bit before the Bengal wicket-keeper batsman’s resilience broke as he got run-out for 31. Holder though kept hunting for the target hitting maximums with much ease. However, at the end Ellis got the better of the lanky West Indian all-rounder to seal the deal restricting Hyderabad to 120/7.
Earlier PBKS had a slow start, losing both their openers KL Rahul (21) and Mayank Aagrawal (5) cheaply. the middle order too failed to build the innings as Chris Gayle Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran were dismantled by a disciplined SRH bowling effort.
For Hyderabad, Holder(3/19) did his heroic knock with the bat which topped the charts while star spinner Rashid Khan(1/17) bowled a tight spell. Harpreet Brar(18*) and Nathan Ellis(12) added handy runs down the order helping Punjab to post 125/7 on the board.
 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday. ){kind=link}