Arshdeep Singh and Chris Jordan staged a late fightback for Kings XI Punjab to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 12 runs in Match 43 of the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday.
Chasing a paltry target of 127 runs to win, skipper-cum opener David Warner and Jonny Bairstow provided a decent start to Sunrisers Hyderabad by stitching a 56-run stand for the opening wicket before the former was caught by KL Rahul behind the stumps on a Ravi Bishnoi delivery in the seventh over to depart for 35.
Bairstow (19) soon followed his skipper back to the pavilion after being bowled out by Murugan Ashwin in the next over.
Subsequently, Abdul Samad departed cheaply for seven runs before Manish Pandey (15) and Vijay Shankar (26) tried to steady their side's innings by bringing SRH close to 100-run mark.
Following the duo's dismissal, Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to stitch partnerships and were eventually bundled out for 114 in 19.5 overs.
Needing 17 runs off the last two overs, Chris Jordan struck twice to remove Jason Holder (5) and Rashid Khan (0) before Arshdeep Singh gave away just a single while dismissing Sandeep Sharma (0), Priyam Garg (3) and Khaleel Ahmed (0) to grab the win for his side.
Jordan finished with brilliant figures of three for 17, followed by Arshdeep Singh's three for 23. Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi and Mohammed Shami also chipped in with a wicket each.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad too came up with a brilliant bowling performance and outstanding fielding to restrict Kings XI Punjab to a lowly score of 126 for seven in their stipulated 20 overs.
Nicholas Pooran was the highest scorer for the Punjab franchise with an unbeaten 28-ball 32 runs.
Mandeep Singh, who came to open the innings for Kings XI despite the sad demise of his father last night, departed for 14-ball 17 after being caught by Rashid Khan at deep square leg on a Sandeep Sharma delivery.
Meanwhile,skipper-cum opener KL Rahul (27), Chris Gayle (20), Glenn Maxwell (12), Deepak Hooda (0) and Chris Jordan (7) all departed cheaply.
Sandeep Sharma, Jason Holder and Rashid Khan all bagged two wickets each.
With the win, Kings XI have now moved to fifth spot in the IPL 2020 standings with five wins from 11 matches. Sunrisers, on the other hand, have dropped to the sixth place with four victories in hand.
