Umran’s pace brings Sunrisers to the four!

Umran Malik is ecstatic after claiming the wicket of Punjab Kings’ Odean Smith at DY Patil Stadium yesterday. Pic/BCCI; IPL

Sunrisers Hyderabad kept their winning momentum intact, outclassing Punjab Kings by seven wickets with a clinically efficient display in their IPL-15 match at the DY Patil Stadium here on Sunday. Sunrisers, with a top-class bowling effort in which young speedster Umran Malik caught the eye with a four-wicket haul, three of them in the final over, skittled out Punjab Kings for 151.

Easy victory

SRH then completed the victory without fuss, riding on Aiden Markram's unbeaten 27-ball 41 and his unconquered partnership of 75 off 50 balls with Nicholas Pooran (35 not out off 30). The win, their fourth on the trot after losses in their first two matches, lifted Sunrisers to the fourth spot in the league table.

Earlier, Malik, 22, who has consistently clocked over 150 kmph in this edition, turned in a Man of the match-winning display with four for 28. The J&K pacer is in his second stint with Sunrisers, having been retained by them at the mega players' auction. Malik first got rid of Jiten Sharma (caught and bowled) in the eighth over.

He then came back at the death to dismiss Odean Smith, another caught and bowled effort, and then shattered the stumps of Rahul Chahar and Vaibhav Arora off the fourth and fifth balls of the final over. He was on a hat-trick, but last man Arshdeep Singh, who managed to keep the ball out somehow, went for a non-existent single and was run out. Punjab lost their last five wickets at the same score of 151.

Last-over collapse

The dismissal of top scorer Liam Livingstone (60 off 33 balls, 5x4, 4x6) off the final ball of the 19th over was followed by the last-over collapse. Livingstone put on 71 off 49 balls with Shahrukh Khan (26 in 28) to rally Punjab from 61 for four before he was dismissed by SRH's bowling spearhead Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who took three for 22. Livingstone, 28, the costliest overseas buy in the mega players' auction at R11.5 crore, came to the wicket in the fifth over with the score reading 33 for two. He stepped on the pedal immediately with two fours and a leg-side six off Marco Jansen to help PBKS move from 33 for two to 48 for two in just six balls. Punjab lost two more wickets in the next two overs before Livingstone and Shahrukh stemmed the rot.

9
No. of wickets claimed by Umran Malik in six matches this season

Brief scores
PBKS 151 all out in 20 overs (L Livingstone 60; U Malik 4-28, B Kumar 3-22) lost to SRH 152-3 in 18.5 overs (A Markram 41', N Pooran 35', R Tripathi 34, A Sharma 31; R Chahar 2-28) by seven wickets