KXIP pull off incredible chase to regain top spot

Cricket365 14 May 2014

The Kings XI Punjab chased down a score over 200 for the second time in this year's IPL to beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wicket on Wednesday, with Glenn Maxwell and David Miller once again shining.

They needed 206 to beat the Sunrisers after Naman Ojha's 36-ball 79 gave SRH a formidable 205 for five, the fifth highest score this season. the bowling was not good though, with Dale Steyn going for a shocking 51 runs. The KXIP top order fired and reach the target with eight balls to spare, reaching 211 for six, the second best total this season.

KXIP needed the win to go back to the top of the table, and they put their trust in their batsmen to chase any score, opting to field first. Hyderabad got off to a great start, scoring 65 runs for the first wicket before Aaron Finch was removed.

Shikhar Dhawan added 45, before David Warner and Ojha crunched the ball to all parts, pushing the score to 169 before he went out at the star of the 18th over. Ojha then went on a demolition spree, smashing 26 runs off the 19th over to get the tally close to 200.

Sandeep Sharma, one of the tournament's leading wicket takers, went for 65 runs in his four overs, the second-worst bowling figures in IPL history.

The might of the Punjab line up meant that even 200 was not a comfortable score, and they soon showed why. They posted the highest powerplay total of this year's IPL (86 off 6 overs) and then scored the fastest team 100 in IPL history. They also made the fastest 150, coming off 70 balls.

Wriddhiman Saha and Manan Vohra did the bulk of the early damage, with Saha making 54 off 26 balls, and Vohra out for 47 off 20. Maxwell and Miller then made sure to keep the pace going, with Maxi adding 43, including five sixes.

There were moments of further drama as Maxwell should have been out early on. He was caught off Amit Mishra by Steyn, but the spinner had overstepped and it was thus not out. He was eventually removed by the same combination.

In the end, it was Miller and George Bailey who got the runs, with the skipper making 35 off 19 balls. He hit the winning runs, needing just a single, by launching a huge six off Bhuveneshwar Kumar in the 19th over.

<b>Hyderabad Sunrisers:</b> Aaron Finch, Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner, Naman Ojha, Lokesh Rahul, Moises Henriques, Irfan Pathan, Karn Sharma, Dale Steyn, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

<b>Kings XI Punjab:</b> Virender Sehwag, Wriddhiman Saha, Glenn Maxwell, George Bailey, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Akshar Patel, Mitchell Johnson, Shivam Sharma, Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep Sharma.