Sunrisers Hyderabad continued their push for a place in the IPL play-offs with a fifth win in six matches but were almost upset by a brilliantly desperate late stand from Kings XI Punjab’s David Miller.
With his side collapsing and the required run rate at one point above 17 per over, Miller made a lone stand and struck an unbeaten 89 from 44 balls with two fours and nine sixes.
Before this match Sandeep Sharma, the Kings XI opening bowler, had sent down 121 dot balls this season, more than any other bowler in the IPL. That his team keeps getting roundly beaten speaks to the form of the rest of the bowlers and their poor showing carried into the start of this match as David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan got stuck into some middling deliveries. They took less than five overs to bring up the fifty.
Dhawan was then stumped off Glenn Maxwell’s first delivery for 24 but the Sunrisers looked in the mood to dwarf the average score at this ground of 158. When Warner thrashed over extra cover for a single that took him to 39 not out, he overtook Ajinkya Rahane as the leading run scorer for the season. Warner hit a pair of sixes in the 13th over, bringing up his own 50 and that for the second wicket, as he looked to accelerate further.
Moises Henriques fell for 28, trying to hit Gurkeerat out the ground, but his replacement at the crease, Eoin Morgan, was in no mood for hanging around: he struck his second, third and fourth balls faced for six, six and four respectively. However his innings proved only a useful cameo as he flicked to deep square-leg for a seven-ball 17.
At this point 200 would have been a consideration for the Sunrisers but their expectations had to be revised when Warner and Naman Ojha got themselves out softly to consecutive deliveries. Warner chipped a full toss straight to mid-on after hitting six fours and five sixes in his 81 from 52 balls, then Ojha was smartly run out for two after backing up too far. Some good lower-order strokeplay from KL Rahul and Karn Sharma saw them to a high total.
Kings XI made a flying start to the chase, albeit a fairly fortunate one as Murali Vijay twice sent edges over the wicketkeeper’s head for four with uncontrolled swings. Eventually he was out to the left-arm spin of Bipul Sharma, prodding a slower ball and falling to Dhawan’s excellent low catch at cover for 24. Bipul struck again in his next over, having Vohra caught on the long-on boundary for 20.
Maxwell’s poor form continued when, after striking two aggressive boundaries, he was caught behind off a brilliant fast delivery by Trent Boult. Just back of a length, it rose sharply outside Maxwell’s off stump and took a thin edge through to Ojha. From 42 without loss, Kings XI had lost three wickets for 18 runs.
The sudden collapse did not so much slow the run rate as attach a comedy Warner Bros one tonne weight to it. In a neat microcosm of Kings XI’s woes to date, they could neither score nor preserve wickets as Wriddhiman Saha, George Bailey and Gurkeerat Singh all departed cheaply and with strike rates below 100.
Somehow, though, Miller kept his team’s hopes alive. Going into the final over needing 28 to win, he was surely the only man who thought that Kings XI could pull it off. In an astonishing finale he came within one more six of doing it.
