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Sharjah : Glenn Maxwell butchered 95 off 43 balls as Kings XI Punjab achieved another big chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
In reply, Hyderabad never got going in the chase and were bowled out for 121, Balaji took four wickets.
SRH had established a reputation of being good defenders in IPL 6 while this season KXIP have made light work of huge totals in their previous two games. On Tuesday, SRH skipper Shikhar Dhawan thought differently after winning the toss and opted to field first.
Led by Maxwell, KXIP posted 193/6 and later put up a superior show with the ball, led by Lakshmipathy Balaji (4/13), to bowl them out for 121 in 19.2 overs.
Slog sweep is Maxwell's weapon of choice and it was used abundantly at the Sharjah cricket stadium. Five of his nine sixes were against Amit Mishra - three of them hit while employing slog sweep. He spared no one barring Bhuvneshwar who outfoxed him allowing him just two runs off four deliveries. However, it was Mishra who ended the assault as Maxwell holed out at long-off in the 18th over.
Earlier, Virender Sehwag (30) and Cheteshwar Pujara (35) had laid the foundation for the huge total adding 51 runs for the first wicket. Sehwag was a little tentative against the pace duo of Dale Steyn and Kumar at the beginning.
The introduction of Irfan Pathan, making his debut for SRH, in the third over changed the scenario as the 35-year-old swatted Pathan for a six and a four in successive deliveries. Taking a cue from his senior team-mate, Pujara went after Steyn in the fifth over, with three boundaries.
Kumar and Steyn were the only bright spot in SRH's lacklustre performance. The former took three wickets for 19 runs in four overs while the latter went wicketless but was economical. The others, well, they were brutally swept aside by another Maxwell masterclass.
Chasing a huge total under lights, SRH needed their top order firing on all cylinders.
Aaron Finch began positively lifting Sandeep Shamra straight for a six in the first over. The first over fetched them 11 runs. However, Dhawan's struggle at the top continued and he was out after edging Mitchell Johnson in the second over to be out for one.
Both Warner and Finch fell in the same over of Balaji and it all but ended the hope of any fightback. Balaji, ended up with an excellent figure of 4/13 in his four overs.
None of the batsmen got even a whiff of a start. Dhawan and Finch (19) were guilty of offering no footwork while Warner (8) was taken aback by a delivery that climbed on him offering a simple catch to Maxwell. Wicketkeeper-batsman Lokesh Rahul top scored for SRH with a run-a-ball 27.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to field.
Irfan Pathan replaced Ishant Sharma for Hyderabad while Punjab brought in Rishi Dhawan and Sandeep Sharma, Murali Kartik and Awana are out.
Teams
Hyderabad : Shikhar Dhawan (Capt.), Aaron Finch, David Warner, Lokesh Rahul (wk), Venugopal Rao, Darren Sammy, Irfan Pathan, Karan Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Punjab : Cheteshwar Pujara, Virender Sehwag, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, George Bailey (Capt.), Akshar Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Mitchell Johnson, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Sandeep Sharma
Brief scores
Kings XI Punjab - 193/6 (Maxwell 95, Pujara 35, Sehwag 30, B Kumar 3-19)
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 121 (Balaji 4-13)
Result - Kings XI Punjab won by 72 runs
Points - Kings XI Punjab 2, Sunrisers Hyderabad 0
