Inspiration is one thing you can’t control it, but hard work is what a good team always look to do. Good luck means work harder and at the same time keep up the good work. The Sunrisers Hyderbad players must have told themselves after surviving a close shave against the Kings XI Punjab at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal in Hyderabad on Monday.
The Sunrisers always had the edge over the Kings even before the match began. By the virtue of wins earned by the home team, Kings’ biggest challenge was to avoid another defeat. But despite a sparkling knock by David Miller, who was regularly doing it for his team last year, the Kings had to bite the dust.
Earlier, the Sunrisers won the toss and batted first to make a massive 185 at the loss of five wickets. Their captain David Warner once again led from the front. Like he batted in previous matches, Warner was in complete control of things and didn’t allow the match to drift towards the opposition.
The Sunrisers also got a decent start to their innings and runs kept coming smoothly even through the middle over. For the fifth time in the tournament this year, the opening pair of Warner and Shikhar Dhawan made fifty plus opening partnership. Warner also completed 500 plus runs this year in the IPL. Incidentally, this was his sixth fifty of the season.
Warner’s performance this season also goes to show how dominating he has been against most of the teams. Against the Kings, there wasn’t any exception. He batted with extreme authority. In the end, it was his knock that laid the foundation for a five-run against the Kings.
By the time Warner got out in the 18th over, his team was way ahead of the opposition. In reply, the Kings lost four wickets within ninth over and were staring at the obvious when Miller took the reins in his hands. His knock was even more dangerous than his namesake. He smothered Sunrisers’ bowlers and batted with a strike-rate over 200. He also smashed nine sixes to compile a lusty 89 off 44 balls. He also remained unbeaten when the match ended.
It was only Moises Henriques, who emerged as the best bowler for the Sunrisers and claimed three wickets to his credit. Before that, he made a handy 24 at the top of the order with the bat. Among the other bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was slightly expensive by his standards but bowled a relatively decent last over of his spell against Miller.
From here on, the Sunrisers, after their seventh win in the competition from 12 games, have placed a team Mumbai Indians in a very tricky position. If the Sunrisers continue to get lucky like this, it may also spoil the chances of couple of other teams from entering the play-offs. From what it appears, the Chennai Super Kings will be the first team to get the play-off ticket. But the suspense over the three teams is going to continue for a while.
