Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings, 14th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: Indian Premier League 2023 Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad Date & Time: Apr 09, 07:30 PM LOCAL

Dhawan hit an unbeaten 99 but it came in a losing cause. © BCCI

SRH open account

Huge win for SRH as they needed one badly after losing the first two. This night will still be remembered for what Dhawan came up with earlier in the night but SRH will be pleased with the final result though. They struggled initially in the chase but Tripathi and Markram made the target look very easy in the end as SRH won with 17 balls to spare. PBKS suffer their first loss.

265 11

PBKS rattled

This could end pretty quickly here. Punjab Kings continue to lose wickets in heaps. Shahrukh Khan was trapped lbw by Markande and Umran Malik cleaned up Harpreet Brar. Dhawan is the lone man fighting now. 77/7 after 12 overs.

(Overs 7-10) -PBKS sink further

Dhawan is standing tall but wickets are falling around him. Sam Curran looked bright in his little cameo but a mistimed shot led to his dismissal before Sikandar Raza departed. Raza has not managed to grab his chances so far and you got to say Livingstone will most likely take his place once he returns. PBKS need a big partnership. They are 73/5 at the halfway mark.

Powerplay -Disastrous start for Punjab Kings

Bhuvneshwar Kumar gives SRH the dream start by trapping Prabhsimran Singh lbw first ball. Marco Jansen then hurt PBKS further with the wickets of Matthew Short and Jitesh Sharma as SRH take early control of this contest. This is exactly what they needed. Shikhar Dhawan has been looking good though at the other end and he is constantly skipping down the track to negate the swing. Sam Curran then broke the shackles in that final over of the powerplay to smack Jansen for a six and a four. PBKS are 41/3 after the powerplay.

Cracker of a finish in Ahmedabad

Not sure the players from these two camps would have focussed on what just transpired in Ahmedabad. That was certainly one of the greatest finishes ever to a T20 game. Five sixes off the last five balls to win a game? Good luck topping that tonight!!

Toss -SRH opt to bowl

No surprises there. SRH opt for the most common template in T20 cricket in search of their first win. They want to know what they need with the bat. PBKS have a forced change after Rajapaksa's injury last game. Matthew Short gets an opportunity in the IPL for the first time. Heinrich Klaasen and Mayank Markande are going to play for SRH.

Teams:

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, T Natarajan

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan(c), Prabhsimran Singh, Matthew Short, Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Sam Curran, Nathan Ellis, Mohit Rathee, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh

Build up

Two teams with contrasting starts to this year's edition of the IPL clash tonight in the second game. Were they expected to make contrasting starts prior to the tournament? Definitely not. Sunrisers Hyderabad had a great team post the auctions. Punjab Kings made some interesting purchases but still had a few holes to plug. Jonny Bairstow getting ruled out of the tournament didn't help and Liam Livingstone hadn't arrived in time. However, they have been very very good so far, picking up two wins in two games.

SRH on the other hand were expected to fare better after a massive overhaul in the auctions. But that top order hasn't fired yet. They should ideally recall Abhishek Sharma tonight and Mayank Agarwal needs runs as well for his new franchise. Their bowling attack has always looked good so if they can make early inroads, SRH will fancy their chances of keeping PBKS to a moderate score. Can they open their account on the third attempt? We will find out.