IPL 2023, SRH vs PBKS: Sunrisers Deliver a Clinical Performance Despite Dhawan's Heroics

Mayank Markande celebrating after taking a wicket of Rahul Chahar (AP Photo)

Sunrisers Hyderabad have registered their first win of the season by notching up a comprehensive 8-wicket win over Punjab Kings at their home ground in Hyderabad. They outclassed Punjab Kings both with the bat and ball and thus handed the Shikhar Dhawan-led Punjab unit their first defeat of IPL 2023.

Shikhar Dhawan Plays a Sensational Knock to take Punjab Kings to a Respectable Total

The win was setup by SRH bowlers in the first half as they never let Punjab Kings build a partnership and kept taking wickets at regular intervals. Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck in the first delivery of the game to send back in-form Prabhsimran Singh while Jansen joined the party soon to restrict PBKS to 22-3.

Curran then joined hands with Dhawan to bring some stability into the innings with 41-run partnership but his wicket brought another collapse as Punjab were reduced to 88-9 in the 15th over. They looked down and out with Mayank Markande picking four wickets on his SRH debut but Dhawan stood tall and played a knock that would be remembered for a long time as he stroked an unbeaten 99 to take his team to a score of 143. He scored 69.2 percentage of total runs and gave his team a glimmer of hope going into the second half.

Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram Ensures a Clinical Chase

Harry Brook was sent out to open alongside Mayank Agarwal as SRH went for their third different opening pair in as many matches. Brook did start brightly with flurry of boundaries but Arshdeep Singh knocked him over in the fourth over while Mayank's scratchy knock also was cut short by Rahul Chahar in the 9th over. However, SRH skipper Markram joined Tripathi and both of them mixed caution with aggression beautifully to ensure that their are no further hiccups in the run-chase. Tripathi scored an unbeaten 74 while Markram also remained not out on 37 to cap-off a strong performance in front of their passionate Orange Army.

Brief Score

Punjab Kings: 143-9 (20)

Shikhar Dhawan - 99* (66), Sam Curran - 22 (15);

Mayank Markande 4-15 (4), Marco Jansen 2-16 (3)

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 145-2 (17.1)

Rahul Tripathi 74* (48), Aiden Markram 37* (21);

Arshdeep Singh - 1-20 (3), Rahul Chahar 1-28 (3)