Sunrisers Hyderabad got their fourth win in a row in this year’s Indian Premier League after they beat Punjab Kings comprehensively by seven wickets. SRH now have more wins in this campaign than they had in the whole of last. Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bowl at Navi Mumbai. Punjab was without their captain Mayank Agarwal as Shikhar Dhawan led the side. Apart from Liam Livingstone, no PBKS batter could settle in front of the SRH pace attack and posted 151. In the end, it was a relatively comfortable chase for SRH with 7 balls left. Williamson praised his team after the match saying it was a strong performance from his side.

“It has been a nice period of play for us as aside. There’s been a lot of growth. It’s a long season, a lot of cricket left. As a side, it’s important we continue to look to improve. Today was a really strong performance on a surface that was a little bit different. Every team is strong, but for us, it’s just focusing on our cricket.” said Kane Williamson in a post-match presentation.

Let’s look at the talking points from the first IPL 2022 game on Sunday –

Umran Malik’s four-wicket haul in IPL 2022

The fiery pacer from Jammu is becoming a sensation in this IPL with his raw pace. In the beginning, he was often criticized for his expensive spells but the young pacer is improving in every game. After a sensational game against KKR in the last outing, Umran picked up four against PBKS, three of them coming in the 20^th over which he bowled a wicket maiden.

Markram and Pooran unbeaten again

It is now three games in a row that these two SRH batters finished the game in style remaining unbeaten. Pooran was SRH’s most expensive buy in this year’s auction. After a couple of failures, in the beginning, the West Indian wicket-keeper batter is doing a perfect job alongside Aiden Markram in the middle order for SRH. A brilliant 75 run partnership this time for both helped SRH win the game by 7 wickets.

Killer Miller destroys CSK to take GT top of the table

It was a Killer Miller show at Pune when Gujarat Titans were up against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings. Rashid Khan captained the side in the absence of Hardik Pandya. CSK posted 169 in the first innings. Coming on to chase, GT were 48/4 in the 9^th over and won the game from there with 1 ball remaining. Jadeja has now faced another defeat as captain and said his bowlers did not execute the plans correctly.

“We started brilliantly. The first six overs were good as a bowling unit, but credit goes to Miller, who played some good cricket shots. When we were batting, the wicket was gripping and the ball was holding so we thought 169 was a par score,” said Ravindra Jadeja in a post-match presentation

“But we didn’t execute our plans in the last five (20th over). I think CJ (Chris Jordan) is experienced so I thought let me go with him. He can bowl 4-5 yorkers. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen today, that’s the beauty of T20 cricket,” he added

Let’s look at the talking points –

Ruturaj back in form

Last year’s orange cap winner struggled in every game so far this season and had scores like 0, 1, 1, 16, 17. But last night it was the Ruturaj CSK fans know. The 24-year-old scored a brilliant 73 off just 48 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes.

Rashid Khan shows what he can do with the bat

The Afgan star is more known for his leg-spin bowling but he did something great with the bat when his team needed it most. In his first game as captain in the IPL, Rashid smashed a 21 ball 40 and built a comeback partnership with Miller in the run chase.

Killer Miller show

The 32-year-old looked at his prime best against CSK. He came on to bat when GT was 16/3 in the 4^th over. Miller had the capability to play special knocks and he did it in the past as well when he smashed a 38 ball century for Punjab against RCB in 2013. This time he showed that he’s still got it and can win a game for his side almost single-handedly. Miller smashed an unbeaten 94 of 51 balls to get his side home.