IPL 2018, SRH vs KXIP: Hits and Misses
After being put into bat, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batting once again disappointed as they put up a poor show against Kings XI Punjab. Ankit Rajpoot was magnificent as he sent the SRH top three packing early in the powerplay. After the early setback, SRH never got going as they struggled their way to 132.
Manish Pandey did score a half-century but he was scratchy as well. KXIP were very sloppy in the field as they dropped a lot of catches in the outfield and hence that played a big role in SRH getting over 130.
Chasing an under-par total, KXIP once again got off to a good start as KL Rahul and Chris Gayle shared their fourth successive 50-plus opening stand. However, it was a stunning collapse from KXIP as they lost all their 10 wickets for just 65 runs (from 55/0 to 119 all out). It was once again a top effort from the SRH bowlers as they defended a low score for the second time in three days.
This was SRH’s fifth win and they move the second in the points table with 10 points from 7 games.
#5 Hit: Rashid Khan
“You don’t learn till you get hit. It’s a part of the game. Giving away 55 and 48 runs in the last two games helped me learn a lot,” Rashid Khan said after the last game where he picked up 2/11. He was smashed to all parts of the ground the last time SRH played against KXIP. But he has come storming back.
After his Man of the Match performance in the last game, Rashid backed it up with another excellent spell. KXIP were cruising at 55/0 before the Afghanistan leggie knocked over KL Rahul with a beauty to given SRH their first breakthrough. He then came back and dismissed Karun Nair and Ravichandran Ashwin as he constantly troubled the batsmen.
He went past the outside-edge quite a few times and every time he came on to bowl, the KXIP batsmen looked to play him out. Finishing with figures of 3/19 in his 4 overs was one of the main reasons why SRH defended 132.