Hyderabad: Three huge sixes by Thisara Perera in the 19th over sealed a five-wicket victory for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Kings XI Punjab in their Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) match at Rajiv Gandhi international stadium here yesterday.
Perera (23 off 11 balls) helped the home team achieve the 124 target with seven balls remaining. The Sri Lankan and local boy Ashish Reddy scored unbeaten 30 off 16 deliveries.
With this victory, Sunrisers now top the points table with 10 points from seven games. This was also the third straight win for them at the home ground.
Hanuma Vihari, who was the top scorer with 46, played a key role in the Sunrisers’ win.
The home team had a disastrous start losing the first wicket in the first over with no score on the board.
Quinton de Kock, playing his second match as Kumar Sangakkara preferred to sit out for the second consecutive game, was bowled as he attempted to flick away Praveen Kumar’s delivery.
However, Vihari, who joined Akshath Reddy, stabilised the innings and kept the score board ticking with ones and twos.
Vihari played some delightful strokes including two successive boundaries off Piyush Chawla in the seventh over of the inning.
They added 48 runs for the second wicket before Reddy was sent back by Manpreet Gony.
Azhar Mahmood took a one-hand catch when the opener tried to hit over the mid-wicket.
Vihari continued his good show but was unlucky to miss his half-century as Chawla had him caught at short-cover by Hussey.
The 19-year-old struck five boundaries in his 46 off 39 balls. It was the highest score by any Sunrisers batsman this season.
Skipper Cameron White (16 off 23) seemed to be in good nick. He tried to keep the required rate under control but Gony struck a vital blow in the 16th over by uprooting his stumps.
The next over saw Mahmood sending back Biplab Samantray (10 off 12). IANS
