David Warner has captained Hyderabad to their first IPL win of the season in Chennai while Pat Cummins smashed an unbeaten 66 in vain for Kolkata in Mumbai.
Match Report:
ScorecardWarner tastes success as Cummins lights up with the bat
David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad have finally earned their first points in this season's Indian Premier League by beating Punjab Kings by nine wickets in Chennai.
Another Australian Test star Pat Cummins was also in blistering form in the later IPL game in Mumbai on Wednesday but his superb hitting in an unbeaten 66 off 34 balls still saw Kolkata Knight Riders fall to an 18-run defeat to the Chennai Super Kings.
Warner had captained his side to three straight defeats and contributed 37 with the bat in Hyderabad's comfortable victory with an over and two balls to spare.
Chasing only 121 to win after fine work by his bowlers, Warner helped his English opening colleague Jonny Bairstow in a 73-run opening stand which broke the back of the pursuit.
Punjab had folded for 120 in 19.4 overs after captain KL Rahul won the toss and elected to bat.
"It was very pleasing," said Warner. "The bowlers did a fantastic job to reduce them."
Image Id: B2FB29FF2B3E4F8DBF9431F2362E810E Image Caption: The win was Sunrisers first of the season // BCCI-SportzpicsBairstow's unbeaten 63 off 56 balls ensured Hyderabad didn't face another run-chasing hiccup as they ended up cruising to 1-121 in 18.4 overs.
Kane Williamson had recovered from a troublesome elbow which kept the New Zealand captain out of previous three games and, along with Bairstow, guided them to victory with his 16 not out off 19 balls.
Warner, who hit three fours and a six in his run-a-ball 37, had yet again given Hyderabad a strong start before holing out in the deep while going for a big shot against left-arm spinner Fabian Allen.
Earlier, Punjab's top-order batsmen continued to struggle – especially West Indies duo Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran.
The pair were dismissed before the halfway mark and left their team in trouble at 4-47 in the ninth over.
Gayle was trapped leg before wicket for 15 by Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan and Pooran was out for his third score of zero in four innings when he was run out without facing a ball after a brilliant bit of fielding from Warner.
Fast bowler Khaleel Ahmed, who had earlier removed opening batsman Mayank Agarwal (22), took two late wickets to finish with 3-21, while leftarm spinner Abhishek Sharma took 2-24.
Moises Henriques made 14 from 17 batting at No.6, and bowled one over for seven runs for Punjab.
Image Id: 894A4F5CEA844DA2B4CD76CD09272B3D Image Caption: Pat Cummins hit six sixes in his 34-ball knock // BCCI-SportzpicsIn Mumbai, Cummins, batting at No.8, produced some great hitting before Kolkata were bowled out for 202 with five balls to spare in a high-scoring thriller.
Chennai had posted an imposing 3-220 with Faf du Plessis smashing 95 not out from 60 balls and Ruturaj Gaikwad (64) making his first half-century this season.
Fast bowler Deepak Chahar's second four-wicket haul in three games then left Kolkata reeling at 5-31 inside the batting powerplay before Andre Russell (54) and Cummins led a stunning run-chase.
Paceman Cummins, who returned expensive figures of 0-58 off his four overs, then gave Kolkata a sniff with the bat when he hit four sixes and a four off Sam Curran's 16th over that yielded a total of 30 runs.
Cummins hit six sixes in total, as did Russell, whose 54 had come from just 22 balls to spark the Kolkata revival.
However, Cummins ran out partners in an attempt to keep the strike in the last three overs as the final three wickets all fell for ducks and Chennai recorded their third successive win in the tournament.