Sunrisers sneak home after staving off Punjab's late surge

Sunrisers Hyderabad stole a two-run victory defending 182 as they notched up their third win of IPL 2024.

Ashutosh and Shashank provide the thrills

The heroes of Punjab's previous win almost did an encore, launching an exhilarating hitting show at the death. Defending 29 off the final over, Jaydev Unadkat bowled as many as three wides and also saw three dropped catches out of which two were palmed over the ropes. The brute power for Ashutosh was paired with Shashank Singh's smart strokeplay.

Shashank first hit three boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar when the equation was 67 off the final four. Ashutosh powered a couple of boundaries off Cummins next to keep Punjab in the chase. Only 10 came off the penultimate over bowled by T Natarajan despite two boundaries, and that paved the way for some crucial runs in the bag for Unadkat to defendand taking SRH home after a see-saw game that saw fortunes change hands right through.

Arshdeep helps Punjab ace powerplay

At the start of the match, Punjab had a decent start after winning the toss. In what was his best outing so far in IPL 2024, left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh had an opening spell to remember as he prised out both Travis Head and Aiden Markram in the space of three balls. Head could have been dismissed off the first ball of the innings but Punjab Kings failed to review an outside edge.

It allowed Head to then cut loose with three consecutive boundaries off Rabada in his next over. But Arshdeep culled the blows by having Head miscuing a big hit that was taken well by Shikhar Dhawan who had to pedal back and across from mid off. With some movement on offer still, Arshdeep then angled one across Markram who nicked behind giving Arshdeep figures of 2-8 in his first spell.