The 14th match of the IPL 2021 saw Punjab Kings (PBKS) taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. SRH came into this match losing all three of their previous encounters, while PBKS just had one win from 3 matches.
KL Rahul, PBKS captain, won the toss and chose to bat first, a norm for teams in Chennai. PBKS made two changes, leaving out both their Australian pacers to bring in Moises Henriques and Fabien Allen and Murugan Ashwin also came into the playing XI.
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SRH brought in Kedar Jadhav for Manish Pandey and Abhishek Sharma and Siddharth Kaul were also included in the playing XI.
The pitch proved to be a tough one from the start as SRH bowlers used the cutters and slower balls to good effect. KL Rahul fell to Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 4 and though Mayank Agarwal (22) and Chris Gayle (15) tried to consolidate the innings, they fell in quick succession, along with Nicholas Pooran.
Shahrukh Khan (22), Moises Henriques (14), and Deepak Hooda (13) enabled PBKS to put up 120 on the board. For SRH, Khaleel Ahmed (3/21) was the pick of bowlers, while Bhuvneshwar shined with 2/24.
In reply, SRH needed a good partnership up top and David Warner and Jonny Bairstow added 73 runs in 10 overs. Warner fell to Fabien Allen for 37 with 3 fours and 1 six. But Kane Williamson (16*) and Jonny Bairstow (63* in 56 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes) ended the match in SRH’s favor with 9 wickets in hand and 8 balls to go.
SRH recorded their first win in the tournament and got 2 points for the same, while PBKS moved to the bottom of the points table with 3 losses in 4 matches.
BRIEF SCORES:
PBKS 120 (S KHAN 22, K AHMED 3/21) lost to SRH 121/1 (J BAIRSTOW 63*, D WARNER 37) by 9 wickets.
