Sunrisers Hyderabad pulled off a sensational four-wicket win over Punjab Kings in their last league stage game of the IPL 2024 on Sunday. In-form batters Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen pulled off brilliant knocks to help Sunrisers chase down their joint-highest 215-run target with five balls remaining.
A win boosted Sunrisers Hyderabad to the second position in the points table while Punjab Kings finished their IPL 2024 campaign at the ninth spot. However, Rajasthan Royal are facing Kolkata Knight Riders in the double-header fixture on Sunday and a win will take the former to second position.
Prabhsimran Singh top-scored with 71 runs off 45 balls to help Punjab Kings post a challenging total of 214/5 while batting first at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Hyderabad lost their in-form opener Travis Head on the very first ball but Abhishek smashed 66 off 28 balls and then Heinrich Klaasen scored 42 runs to power the hosts to an easy chase.
With overseas players leaving the camp early for T20 World Cup 2024 preparations, Punjab Kings named ten Indian names in their playing eleven with Shivam Singh making his debut. Openers Atharva Taide and Prabhsimran Singh pulled off 97 runs for the opening wicket inside ten overs to put Punjab on a track for a big total.
Taide missed his fifty by just four runs but Prabhsimran introduced his second fifty of the season. Rilee Rossouw contributed by smashing 49 off just 24 balls and the stand-in skipper added a quick 32* as Punjab posted a big total. T Natarajan took two wickets for 33 while Pat Cummins and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth claimed one each.
Arshdeep Singh bowled out big man Travis Head on the first ball of the innings to give Punjab a perfect start. But the hosts made a stunning comeback with in-form Abhishek and the returning Rahul Tripathi adding 72 runs for the second wicket. Tripathi smashed 33 runs off just 18 balls but was not able to convert it into a big knock.
Nitish Kumar Reddy also contributed with another quickfire knock and Abhishek's 21-ball fifty kept SRH in a commanding position throughout their chase. Klaasen smashed 42 off just 26 balls as SRH chased down a tough target with five balls remaining.
Punjab Kings Playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh, Rilee Rossouw, Atharva Taide, Shashank Singh, Jitesh Sharma (c & wk), Ashutosh Sharma, Shivam Singh, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sanvir Singh, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, T Natarajan.
