A scintillating innings by David Warner followed by a disciplined bowling effort from the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling attack meant the Orange Army recorded a 45-run victory over Kings XI Punjab at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium Hyderabad on Monday.
Photo: SPORTZPICSThe home team were off to a magnificent start, scoring 75 in just five overs, led by Warner, who continued the onslaught up until the 15th over where the scoreboard read 159/1. But a strong bowling effort at the backend by the KXIP bowling unit helped them restrict SRH to 212/6.
However, during the chase, KXIP kept losing wickets at regular intervals, despite KL Rahul, who finished with a classy 79 runs off 56 balls, holding one end on his own up until the penultimate over of the contest.
Speaking in the post match presentation, captain Ravichandran Ashwin said that he believes that injuries to key members of the roster has caused an imbalance to the team's middle order and has also restricted the inclusion of a sixth bowler or a seventh batsman in the team. “If you see throughout, we have struggled to chase down totals in excess of 190. We have been around 175-180 and that is some sort of balance issue for us,” said the skipper.
This defeat meant that KXIP would need to win each of their final two fixtures of the campaign to give themselves a realistic chance of reaching the playoffs and captain Ashwin believes the team is up for the challenge.
“We have to keep our chin up and move forward,” said the skipper. “There is a lot of young energy inside the team. Everybody is looking forward to go out there and play. It is important(for us) to stay in the present and try and move forward.
“A win helps to galvanise the team but having said that, we will not go away that easily in the tournament, we will keep sticking our necks out in rest of the games,” he concluded.
