Chandigarh: Parthiv Patel (61 off 45) and Thisara Perera (32 off 19) did well with the bat while Darren Sammy (4/22) starred with the ball to help Sunrisers Hyderabad to a comfortable 30 run win against Punjab at PCA stadium, Mohali on Saturday.
Chasing 151, Punjab seemed to lose the plot. After losing a flurry of wickets early, Kings XI Punjab were given some respite by Rajagopal Sathish when he blasted Amit Mishra for a couple of sixes and a boundary off consecutive deliveries.
However, Sathish (25) failed to deliver when he was run out in an attempt to take steal a cheeky single that put the Sunrisers in a commanding position.
Earlier, Darren Sammy proved too hot for Punjab to handle.
Sammy struck on the first two deliveries of his first over to dent the King XI Punjab run chase and proved instrumental in breaking a growing 44-run partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh.
In Sammy's very next over he dismissed the dangerous David Miller when the South African hit an outside off good length delivery straight to Hyderabad skipper Cameron White.
Earlier, a late batting surge by Parthiv Patel and Perera powered Hyderabad to set a 151-run target for Punjab.
Parthiv slammed his half-century at a time when the Sunrisers Hyderabad needed it the most and it helped them recover well after a horrendous start to their innings.
Patel, however, was dismissed soon after for a score of 61 runs that included 5 boundaries and a couple of sixes and along with Perera put up 48-runs for the 7th wicket.
Perera too played a handy cameo of 32 runs in just 19 runs and hit 2 boundaries and the same number of sixes.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad had no answer to some fiery bowling by debutant Sandeep Sharma as the Punjab pacer rattled their batsmen.
Sandeep first scalped Hanuma Vihari when the Hyderabad batsman cut a good length delivery straight to David Miller at point to bring an early end to his short-lived innings of 5 runs that included a lone boundary.
Harmeet Singh drew first blood for Punjab when on the very first delivery of his first over he was able to force Shikhar Dhawan (15) to hit the ball straight back to him to take a good catch.
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab have won the toss and elected to field.
Cameron White is leading Hyderabad and he replalce regular skipper Kumar Sangakkara. Sunrisers have left out Biplab Samantray and have brought in Ashish Reddy.
Punjab have included Sandeep Sharma, the India Under-19 bowler.
Teams:
Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (captain & wk), Mandeep Singh, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, David Miller, Rajagopal Sathish, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Harmeet Singh, Parvinder Awana, Sandeep Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Parthiv Patel (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Hanuma Vihari, Cameron White (captain), Thisara Perera, Darren Sammy, Biplab Samantray, Karan Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma
Brief scores
Sunrisers Hyderabad 150/7 (Patel 61, Parera 32*, Sharma 3-21)
Kings XI Punjab 120/9 (Pomersbach 33*, Sammy 4-22)
Result Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 30 runs
Points Sunrisers Hyderabad 2, Kings XI Punjab 0