Dubai: Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) made an incredible comeback, taking five wickets in the final two overs to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 12 runs in the 43rd match of IPL 2020 match at Dubai International Stadium on Saturday.
SRH captain David Warner won the toss and elected to field. Despite a huge personal loss, Mandeep opened the innings for his side in the absence of regular opener Mayank Agarwal, who was ruled out due to an injury. KXIP Skipper K.L. Rahul (27 off 27 balls), Mandeep Singh (17 off 14 balls) and Chris Gayle (20 off 20 balls) all got starts but their innings never got going as they failed to grab the momentum. Nicholas Pooran top-scored for Punjab with a 32-run knock off 28 balls as the KXIP managed to post only 126 runs on the board in 20 overs. Sandeep Sharma, Rashid Khan, and Jason Holder took two wickets each for SRH while Khaleel Ahmad and T Natarajan did not have any wicket in their kitty for 31 and 23 runs respectively.
Chasing a modest total of 127 runs, David Warner started the innings strong for the Hyderabad side before departing for 35 off 20 balls. However, Ravi Bishnoi managed to restrict the run flow, conceding just 24 runs in four overs. The Warner-led side struggled in middle overs as the team lost wickets in quick succession. Vijay Shankar’s (26 off 27 balls) helped the side to steady the innings, but the wickets continued to fall, as Arshdeep Singh and Chris Jordan shared six wickets between them. Hyderabad could score only 114 runs in 19.5 overs.
This is the fourth win on the bounce for KXIP who are now in the fifth position with 5 wins and 6 losses. SRH however are in 6th place with 4 wins and 7 losses in IPL 2020.