The first encounter between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab saw a run galore at Mohali just a week ago. However, at Hyderabad it was the total opposite of what happened last time.

While the likes of Mayank Agarwal, Nitish Rana, and Rishabh Pant stole the limelight as the most prolific uncapped Indian players for their respective teams, Ankit Rajpoot hadn’t been looked at as a promising addition in KXIP’s campaign after having a bad game against Rajasthan Royals.

However, the 24-year-old made the best use of the second opportunity that was given to him in KXIP’s match against Delhi Daredevils. He again made his mark against SRH by taking the first fifer of this season on Thursday. He returned figures of 5/14 which is also the best ever bowling figure for KXIP.

SRH were sent to bat following the toss. Their top-order couldn’t even last until the powerplay, thanks to Ankit’s brilliant spell. He removed Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson, and Wriddhiman Saha to dismantle the team that has been struggling with its middle-order batting. But this time it was the middle-order batsmen who rescued the team from facing a miserable collapse.

Manish Pandey and Shakib Al Hasan didn’t rush add runs on the board. The latter returned to the pavilion after playing a crucial innings of 28 runs from 29 deliveries as Mujeeb Ur Rahman got him out. Manish then stitched another important partnership with Yusuf Pathan to give the team a fighting total.

Pathan remained not out on 21 runs but Manish couldn’t stay until the end. However, he picked up a half-century, one that his team needed the most and no wonder who took the most important wicket, Ankit Rajpoot. He then returned Mohammad Nabi on 4 runs as SRH registered a total of 132 runs for 6 wickets.

Chris Gayle, after taking a break in the last game, returned to the playing XI in this match and was expected to repeat his heroics to chase down the puny target. He started well alongside Lokesh Rahul and together they made the opponents wait for the breakthrough until KXIP’s total went past 50 runs.

Rahul left the crease on 32 runs and following his departure Gayle also gave his wicket away after contributing 23 runs to the total. Their exit opened up the leaks in their batting line-up in front of the opponents as KXIP experienced a collapse and spluttered to 119 losing all their wickets.

Nobody were able to fight back against SRH’s bowling attack as they won the match by 13 runs. Rashid Khan was their peak bowler with 3 wickets to his name. Shakib Al Hasan, Basil Thampi, and Sandeep Sharma also got two wickets apiece.

Shakib completed 50 scalps in his IPL career in this match and took his tally to 51 wickets. He is the only fifth overseas spinner to have reached the milestone in the tournament.

This clash saw a little change in the standings as SRH overtook KXIP at the 2^nd spot. Both the teams have 5 wins in 7 matches.