Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Punjab Kings comfortably by 7 wickets in their first encounter of IPL 2023. Sunrisers have to thank their bowlers, who bowled magnificently and restricted Punjab to 143 in 20 overs. Punjab, on the other hand, has to credit Shikhar Dhawan, who single-handedly took the command and helped Punjab reach a respectable score while the wickets were falling from the other end.
After winning the toss, Sunrisers decided to bowl first, and the bowlers paid back their skipper’s trust. Punjab put up a bizarre batting show as no batsman other than Dhawan and Curran reached double figures. Prabhsimran got out on the very first ball of the inning by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. After that, it was downhill for Punjab. They could not form any partnerships. Dhawan witnessed the departure of one after another as SRH’s seamers and Mayank Markande’s leggies and googlies proved to be deadly. Mayank Markande finished with 4 wickets conceding only 15 runs in his 4 overs. Punjab slipped from 63/3 to 78/8 and then 88/9 at the end of 15 overs. But Dhawan managed to score 55 runs off the last 5 overs and put a respectable score on the board.
Dhawan missed out on a very well-deserving century, but his innings will remain one of the greatest T20 performances ever.
Punjab would have anticipated that the spinners would get help from the surface, similar to Markande in the first inning.
For SRH, both of the openers, Brook and Mayank, struggled to make an impression with the bat. Thus, the visitors got off to a good start with the ball. But after that, they could not get another wicket, and Aiden Markaram and Rahul Tripathi formed a 100-run partnership taking Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first victory and helping them earn 2 points on the Tata IPL 2023 Points Table.
Rahul Tripathi scored brilliant 74 runs off 48 balls with 3 sixes and 10 fours while Markram managed 37 off 21 balls.
