‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle once again proved his worth in T20 cricket as he scored an unbeaten 104* off 63 balls. This helped Kings XI Punjab beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 15 runs to make SRH taste the first defeat of this year.
Ravi Ashwin won the toss and showing trust on his batsmen, he opts to bat first making no change in their playing XI while Hyderabad replaced Billy Stanlake with Chris Jordan.
Punjab started on a slower side as KL Rahul got out after playing a struggling knock of 18(21). But after him, Agarwal (18), Nair (31) and Finch (16) supported Gayle to help Punjab post 193/3 at the end of the innings. Chris Gayle smashed 1 Four and 11 sixes in his 104*. This destroyed the bowling figures of Rashid Khan (4-0-55-1) where he hit 4 sixes in one of his overs while only Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-0-25-1) and Chris Jordan (4-0-31-0) bowled economical.
SRH didn’t start well as Wriddhiman Saha got out for just six runs and Shikhar Dhawan also got retired hurt for 0 (1). Skipper Kane Williamson (54) tried to make his team come closer to the target with help of Yusuf Pathan, who was promoted to number 4 but the latter didn’t took the opportunity well and got out for 19. After them, Manish Pandey scored 57*(42) and Shakib also smashed two sixes in the last over for his knock of 24(12) but the target always seemed too big and they fall 15 runs short.
Ashwin (4-0-53-0) and Mohit Sharma (4-0-51-2) were on the very expensive side but rest three bowlers bowled well in the middle overs to ensure their team a victory.
