Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) recovered from a disastrous start to post a competitive total of 182/9 in their ongoing game against Punjab Kings at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh.
When asked to bat first, SRH got into all sorts of trouble after losing the wickets of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram in the powerplay. In the fourth over, Arshdeep Singh dismissed Head for 21 before returning Markram for a duck. In the next over, Sam Curran dismissed Sharma for 16 to leave SRH reeling at 39 for 3.
The likes of Heinrich Klaasen and Rahul Tripathi also failed to get going and SRH found itself reeling at 100 for 5 in the 14th over. With most of the big names back in the hut and less than six overs remaining, not many expected SRH to post a total of over 180.
However, Nitish Reddy came up with a brilliant knock that propelled his team to the grand total. He smashed 64 runs off just 37 balls with the help of four fours and five sixes. Abdul Samad also played a crucial cameo of 25 runs off just 12 balls.
Sam Curran in disbelief:
On the last ball of SRH’s innings, Sam Curran’s reaction to a mistake by Harshal Patel pretty much summed up PBKS’ display with the ball towards the end. Just as PBKS had a chance to restrict SRH to a modest total and they didn’t, Harshal too had a chance to prevent a six but squandered the chance.
Sam Curran bowled a short delivery and Jaydev Unadkat bowled it towards long-on. The ball was above Harshal’s head but it was within his reach. He put both hands on the ball but failed to catch it and ended up hitting it over the boundary ropes for a six. Sam Curran was in absolute disbelief after Harshal’s effort and his reaction said it all.
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