Warner and Boult hand SRH hard-fought 20-run win

Mohali, April 27: Pace spearhead Trent Boult led the way with 3 wickets after David Warner's brisk half-century laid the foundation as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) recorded a 20-run win over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the Indian Premier League 2015 (IPL 8) here today.

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Asked to bat, opener Warner top-scored with a 41-ball 58 to lift SRH to a modest 150 for six. The bowlers then produced a disciplined effort to restrict KXIP to 130 for nine in 20 overs, paving the way for the visiting side's third win of the season.

Boult returned impressive figures of 3/19 in his four-over spell while Bhuvneshwar Kumar chipped in with two wickets. Wriddhiman Saha top-scored for KXIP with a 33-ball 42

KXIP, playing without the veteran Virender Sehwag, were jolted by the early loss of Manan Vohra and Shaun Marsh, both batsmen playing on against Boult and Kumar respectively to leave the visitors reeling at 13 for two in the fourth over.

Murali Vijay, after spending some time in the middle for his 12 runs, made his way back to the pavilion following a terrible mix-up with David Miller (15) while going for what seemed an unnecessary second run.

KXIP were struggling at 61/4

Around the half-way mark, bottom-placed Punjab were struggling at 61 for four, requiring 90 runs from 60 balls to climb up the ladder. The hosts were dealt another body blow when leg-spinner Karn Sharma bagged the wicket of Miller who skied one to Boult at long off.

With the required run rate shooting up, Miller got a leading edge while trying to hit Sharma down the ground. Skipper George Bailey got out as his mishit found Sharma at mid off after the batsman made 22 off 16 balls with the help of three boundaries.

At the other end, Saha was riding his luck as he got two lives. While Ravi Bopara could not latch on to a difficult one in the 15th over, Boult failed to judge one that went very high in the next over. Saha and Axar Patel managed a few big hits to bring the equation down to 35 from the last three overs.

However, Boult bowled Patel at the start of 18th over before getting the big wicket of Saha to dash KXIP's hopes of pulling off a win in their first home game of the season.

SRH score 150/6 in 20 overs

Earlier, opener Warner top-scored with a 41-ball 58 as SRH managed a modest 150 for six. Ashish Reddy smashed 22 off eight balls towards the end with the help of two last-over sixes, helping Sunrisers reach the 150-mark.

Sent into bat, the Sunrisers Hyderabad were off to a poor start with Shikhar Dhawan falling to pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson with just 10 runs on the board after Sandeep Sharma bowled a maiden opening over at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium.

Kings XI Punjab skipper George Bailey opted to bowl first as the pitch had a good amount of grass on it, and his bowlers responded by producing a disciplined show.

KXIP, who dropped veteran Virender Sehwag after a run of poor scores in their first home game of the season, ensured that the Sunrisers batsmen didn't get easy runs in this crucial encounter between the two bottom-placed teams.

Glenn Maxwell, too, missed out yet again on finding a place in the playing XI. Young left-arm spinner Axar Patel was the best bowler for KXIP, returning impressive figures of 2/25, while Johnson picked up two wickets for 39 runs.

Henriques scores 30

Apart from Warner, Moises Henriques (30) and Naman Ojha (28) were the other contributors for the visiting side, which struggled to cut loose. Warner found the fence 10 times and cleared it once during his stay in the middle.

Though Warner added 46 runs for the second wicket with hanum Vihari and Henriques had a 45-run fourth-wicket stand with, they were not big enough to trouble the home team that had the crowd behind them.

Part-time bowler Murali Vijay bowled a tidy three-over spell, conceding just 16 runs, and that made things worse for Sunrisers.

Anureet Singh, too, was economical as he gave away 27 runs in his full spell, including five runs in the innings' penultimate over.

PTI