Chennai: Khaleel Ahmed (3/21) and Abhishek Sharma (2/24) stole the show as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) restricted Punjab Kings to a paltry 120 in 19.4 overs in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Punjab Kings collapsed from 39/1 to 47/4 in ten balls and never really recovered despite Sharukh Khan's late cameo in the closing stages -- 22 off 17 balls. Opener Mayank Agarwal also scored 22 off 25 balls as the other batsmen failed to rise to the challenge.
Rashid Khan might have dropped a catch early on, but the spinner made up for it as he took a fine low catch to get rid of Mayank. The opener's dismissal started the collapse and the Punjab middle and lower order could not stage a fightback.
Opting to bat first, Punjab Kings got off to bad start as they lost skipper KL Rahul in the fourth over. Rahul departed for four after he mistimed a pull off Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal then looked to stitch a partnership but Khaleel Ahmed ended Mayank's stay in the seventh over. It triggered a middle-order collapse as Punjab Kings lost two more wickets in the next 10 balls. While Nicholas Pooran didn't bother the scorers and got a diamond duck, Gayle scored 15 off 17 balls.
Deepak Hooda and Moises Henriques tried to revive Punjab's innings, but without much success as Abhishek sent them back to see Punjab lose six wickets with just 82 runs on board.
Shahrukh did manage to take Punjab past the 100-run mark, but the right-handed batsman wasn't able to convert it into the big one. Khaleel removed Shahrukh off the first ball of the 18th over to deny the Punjab Kings any chance of finishing the innings on a high. In the final two overs, Punjab Kings picked 10 runs to give SRH a 121-run target.
Brief Scores:
PBKS: 120 (Mayank Agarwal (22), Shahrukh Khan (22); Khaleel Ahmed: 3-21) vs SRH
