Navi Mumbai : Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran exuded confidence and calmness in equal measure as Sunrisers Hyderabad registered their fourth win on the trot after defeating Punjab Kings by seven wickets at the D.Y Patil Stadium on Sunday.
After Umran Malik (4/28) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/22) shared seven wickets between themselves to bowl out Punjab Kings for 151, Hyderabad were in trouble at 77/3 in 10.3 overs.
At that time, Markram and Pooran joined forces for an unbroken 75-run stand in 8.2 overs to take Hyderabad to victory with seven balls to spare. The result means that Hyderabad enter the top-four stage in the points table.
Hyderabad lost Kane Williamson in the fourth over, playing an uppish drive straight to mid-off off Kagiso Rabada. Rahul Tripathi, fresh from a dazzling 71 against Kolkata Knight Riders, began his innings by dancing down the pitch against Rabada to lift over a leaping mid-off.
He got going by smacking Vaibhav Arora for back-to-back fours, a cut through point was followed by a scoop over fine leg. Tripathi hitting the ground running meant Abhishek Sharma found time to set in and take three boundaries in power-play.
Post power-play, Rahul Chahar leaked 14 runs in his first over with wides and misfields coming into play. Tripathi used his wrists well to welcome Odean Smith with a flicked six over backward square leg. But Chahar brought his sparkling knock to an end at 34, getting some drift in, turn and dip, forcing Tripathi to miscue the loft to long-off. Two overs later, Chahar had his second wicket as Sharma holed out to long-on.
Markram and Pooran indulged in risk-free cricket while dispatching short and overpitched balls to the boundary rope. The duo rotated the strike well and were cautious against Chahar’s remaining overs.
There was almost a run-out of Markram in the 14th over but Rabada missed the chance. From there onwards, it was smooth sailing for Hyderabad. Markram smacked Arora over extra cover for four and finished off the chase in the 19th over with a great loft over extra cover for six to give Hyderabad their fourth straight win.
Brief scores: Punjab Kings 151 all out in 20 overs (Liam Livingstone 60, Shahrukh Khan 26; Umran Malik 4/28, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/22) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 152/3 in 18.5 overs (Aiden Markram 41 not out, Nicholas Pooran 35 not out; Rahul Chahar 2/28, Kagiso Rabada 1/29) by seven wickets.
–IANS