Midway during the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) when Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) named Murali Vijay their skipper, there seemed to be some spark of hope that they will make it to the play-offs. They came back well but not well enough. Second time in the same week, KXIP suffered a close defeat and this ends their hope of making it to the play-offs. READ MORE: IPL 2016, Match 46, Pick of the tweets: Kings XI Punjab vs Sunrisers Hyderabad at Mohali
Did they do poorly? Not really, riding on Hashim Amla’s stroke-filled 96, KXIP put up 179. Had it not been tidy bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the death, KXIP looked set for 190. However, it was a one-man show in their batting department. Wriddhiman Saha, Gurkeerat Mann and David Miller provided Amla good support but probably the team management once again got their batting order wrong. It was a pity to see the in-form Marcus Stoinis and the usually explosive Glenn Maxwell not getting to bat. For the SRH camp, Ashish Nehra’s mistimed injury is a matter of concern. READ MORE: PHOTOS: Suresh Raina blessed with baby girl; names her Gracia
Having said that, target of 180 was still a big one and KXIP’s bowlers have been impressive. David Warner as always got the Orange Army off to a rollicking start and kept them in the hunt before he was hit-wicket. In three games, three SRH batsmen have been dismissed this way and that is bizarre to say the least.
SRH have relied heavily on Warner and KXIP did sniff a win after the dismissal of SRH’s skipper but we witnessed what an in-form Yurvaj Singh can do. He finished it only the way he could to help SRH to the play-offs. Yuvraj was well supported by Deepak Hooda and Ben Cutting.
Turning Point: Mohit Sharma has been brilliant in the death overs for KXIP. He has mixed the pace and bowled diligently in most games. With 39 required from three overs, Mohit was trusted with the job. The over went — 6, 4, 1, 6, 1 and 1. The over cost 19 and SRH had almost pocketed the game.
Brief Scores:
King XI Punjab 179 for 4 in 20 overs [Hashim Amla 96 (56); Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-32-2] lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 180 for 3 in 19.4 overs [David Warner 52 (41), Deepak Hooda 34 (22), Yuvraj Singh 42 (24)*; Axar Patel 4-0-26-1] by seven wickets.
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