G Rajaraman
Shikhar Dhawan, the Punjab Kings skipper, shone like a beacon on a stormy night with a superlative unbeaten 99 but the brilliance of Mayank Markande, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s googly merchant, and Rahul Tripathi’s sedate-to-stunning effort with the bat sandwiched his effort as the home side cantered to its first win of the Indian Premier League 2023 season in Hyderabad on Sunday.
It is not often that the performance of a player from a losing side cries out to be rated higher than the winning efforts of opposition players, but even the Sunrisers Hyderabad team would not grudge Dhawan the lion’s share of the spotlight. It was the kind of evening when he could not afford to lose his cool despite the procession of batters at the other end.
Lonely ranger
If he was upset with the frequent loss of wickets, it did not show on the Punjab Kings skipper’s countenance. He expressed his emotions with the willow to telling effect. His 99 not out, with 12 fours and five sixes, gave his team’s total a modicum of respect. He could have got what would have been his third century in 209 IPL games, but this knock under pressure was special.
A former Sunrisers Hyderabad player, Dhawan played true to his character, batting himself in before finding top gear to score his second successive half-century at a strike rate of 150.00 or more. His unbeaten 99 in his team’s total of 143 for 9 meant his contribution was 69.23 per cent of the team total, second only to Brendon McCullum’s 71.17 per cent in the league’s inaugural game in 2008.
With only the last man left, Dhawan decided to farm the strike. He let Mohit Rathee face just two deliveries in the final five overs as he masterminded the best partnership of the innings, an unbroken 55 runs that easily passed the 42-run stand between Dhawan and Sam Curran for the fourth wicket. The opener’s intent was there for all to see as he caned the Sunrisers bowlers.
To be honest, his knock would have ended had Bhuvneshwar Kumar taken any of the chances he offered in three successive overs, including two caught-and-bowled opportunities. But it was the kind of night on which Dhawan rode his luck, rather than tempting fate. Under challenging circumstances, he delivered for his team.
Mayank switches on the magic
Mayank Markande wasted little time in getting his googly bowling to work on his return to IPL skirmishes. In his first over, he ended Curran’s counter-attack by causing a miscued hit to balloon to short third man. He then had Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Chahar leg before wicket in successive overs before castling Nathan Ellis with the last ball of his spell.
With 4-15, the 25-year-old returned his best figures in IPL, improving on the 4-23 he produced for Mumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018. Through the course of the night, he picked up twice as many wickets as he did in six games in his last three seasons, after claiming 15 scalps in 14 games in his debut year when he wore the Purple Cap for a while.
New-ball bowling does the trick for Sunrisers
Then again, even before Markande came on to bowl for the first time this season, the Hyderabad new-ball bowlers had delivered rapier thrusts and pushed Punjab Kings on the backfoot. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen reduced the visiting side to 22 for 3 before Curran starred in the mini recovery.
Umran Malik conceded a few runs to Dhawan but he negated Punjab Kings’ attempt to increase the depth in its batting. The visitors roped in Sikandar Raza as Impact Player to replace Prabhsimran Singh, a first-ball victim of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but Umran prised him out. The paceman forced a ramp shot that ended up in deep third man’s hands.
Calm Tripathi shifts gear to ease team to victory
During the chase of 7.20 runs an over on a good deck, Sunrisers Hyderabad took its own time to find the tempo that would drive the team to victory without stressing. The home side did not have a great batting power play, with neither Harry Brook nor Mayank Agarwal looking to take risks against the left-arm new-ball attack of Sam Curran and Arshdeep Singh.
This meant that Sunrisers Hyderabad fell behind the chase and fuelled Punjab’s hopes. It was not until the ninth over, delivered by Chahar, that Sunrisers Hyderabad found its first double-digit scoring over to get the chase going. Rahul Tripathi, who took that task upon himself, was a picture of calm even when the asking rate was rising.
Aiden Markram, the Hyderabad skipper who had failed to break his duck on his first appearance, was the sensible second fiddle in the century partnership with Tripathi. Markram watched Tripathi, the experienced 32-year-old, take charge and make things easy with effortless strokeplay on either side of the strip. It was not long before he also joined in the hunt with his range of strokes.