Its match 16 between the second and third-placed team of IPL 2018. Kings XI Punjab playing their last match at Mohali for the season host the Sunrisers Hyderabad. See how Chris Gayle smashes the ball out of the ground to hit the first century of the tournament.
Preview
Sunrisers who have had a perfect start to the season so far winning all 3 out of 3 will be hoping to make it 4. Whereas Punjab will look to bid a farewell to their home ground before they move to Indore. Punjab won their last match against CSK by the scruff of the neck. SRH who were playing away from home won against KKR.
Gayle Storm
Punjab got off to a slowish start as KL Rahul struggled to get the ball away. But Gayle led the way as he hit Rashid Khan for a couple of sixes. KL Rahul got out for 18. It was Mayank Agarwal who came in at number 3 and hit a couple of boundaries before he went back to the pavilion. Just playing his second game of the season, it was Gayle at one end hitting boundaries every now and then before Karun Nair joined him. Both the batsmen looked set and in form as they took the bowlers all around the park. Nair gave in to hitting a maximum as he went back for 31 off 21 balls.
It was Chris Gayle’s day as he hit the first century of IPL 2018. Gayle scored 104 in 63 balls as he hit 11 maximums and a boundary. This was a Gayle of old times as he looked hungry for runs. Aaron Finch finished the innings off as he made a quickfire 14 off 6 balls. Punjab ended up with 193 at the loss of just 3 wickets.
SRH’s Bowling
Sunrisers’ perfect start asks for some credit to the bowlers and they had contained teams so well. It was a different day for the bowlers as they were hit by Gayle storm. Chris Gayle took liking especially to the spinners as Rashid Khan ended up conceding 1-55 in his 4 overs. Sunrisers’ bowlers ended up leaking runs continuously without any wickets as the team could get only 3 wickets in the 20 overs.
Sunriser’s Batting
With a big total in front of them and an injury right at the starting of the innings to Shikhar Dhawan, it was a tough ask for the away team. The unchallenged SRH batting was always going to fall short of the target as the Punjab bowlers bowled well without giving away too many runs.
Kane Williamson who played a fighting knock of 54 in 41 balls got out to the cause. Despite a lot of lifelines given to the Hyderabad batsmen as the Punjab fielders dropped catches, the target was just too big for Sunrisers as they lost their first match of the season.
KXIP’s Bowling
The Punjab bowlers had a big total set by their batsmen. The bowlers started off well as they got the wicket of Saha quite early and Dhawan had to go back retired hurt. Mohit Sharma got a couple of wickets at the start which really helped the team. Andrew Tye got the important wicket of Kane Williamson as that almost set the match to bed. Kings XI Punjab won by 15 runs.
Man Of The Match
It was Chris Gayle’s hard-hitting that won him the man of the match. He scored 104 in 63 balls with 11 sixes.
Click here to read about Nitish Rana’s all-round performance as KKR won against RR.
