Sunrisers Hyderabad were handed their maiden defeat of this season by a clinical Kings XI Punjab at Mohali, on Thursday. After Chris Gayle powered the home-side to pose daunting total with an unbeaten 104-run innings, SRH never looked to be in the contest and fell 15 runs short of KXIP’s total.

The solid bowling attack that had a flying start in the tournament by setting the stage for all three wins for SRH was singlehandedly brought back on the ground by Gayle. SRH then failed with the batting as well.

Shikhar Dhawan retired hurt in after facing the very first delivery and after losing their most effective batsman in the season so far, SRH never emerged as a threat to the opponents while chasing. They got two half-centuries from Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey but they totaled 111 off 83 balls against a target of 194 runs.

While Chris Gayle hit 11 over-boundaries, SRH were able to register only 5 sixes throughout their whole innings, thanks to two last-over maximums from Shakib Al Hasan.

According to Gaurav Kalra, senior editor of ESPNCricinfo.com, Shakib could be given a chance higher up the order as SRH look to suffer to carry on with a momentum while chasing.

“You saw only a glimpse toward the end but there is some merit in asking Shakib to bat higher up the order,” said Kalra.