Warner, Boult guide Sunrisers to win

David Warner's fourth half-century of the season and Trent Boult’s three-wicket haul have helped Sunrisers Hyderabad defend a total of 150 against Kings XI Punjab to record their third win of the IPL.

Sunrisers captain Warner was at his aggressive best at the top of the order but once he fell for 58 from just 41 balls, the Sunrisers couldn't maintain the momentum and finished with 6-150 from their 20 overs.

Punjab were pegged back early in the reply, though, but recovered thanks to skipper George Bailey before Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel seemed to have brought them back into the game with a quickfire 44-run stand for the sixth wicket.

But Boult bowled an exceptional 18th over of the match, his final, in which he conceded just seven but sent back both Patel and Saha before Sunrisers seamers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Praveen Kumar secured the victory.

Kings XI quick Mitchell Johnson, who had conceded almost nine runs an over in the tournament, shared the new ball with Sandeep Sharma for the first time this season, but the move backfired early on.

Warner decided to take on his Aussie teammate and hit him four fours and a six off the seven deliveries he faced in the left-armer's initial two-over spell, but Johnson did get some joy when he sent Shikhar Dhawan on his way for just one.

Hanuma Vihari, batting at three, hit two fours and then miscued a pull to the square-leg fielder, leaving Hyderabad with an excellent run rate but two wickets down early on.

The inclusion of Aussie allrounder Moises Henriques to strengthen the middle-order was a result of how disappointing the Sunrisers have been once they have lost early wickets during this tournament. Their middle-order collapses seemed to play on their mind here too and their run rate dropped after the Powerplay as they looked to bat cautiously at times to avoid losing more wickets.

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Henriques gets creative during his innings // BCCI

Even Warner pulled back from his aggressive start once the restrictions were lifted. He scored just 13 from the 14 balls he faced after the Powerplay overs, hitting only one four in the process, before he got out off the next ball, hitting one from Axar Patel to David Miller.

Earlier, Warner had begun his innings in a hurry. After getting the better of Johnson in those early exchanges, he had crashed Sandeep Sharma for four fours in the fifth over of the innings. This against a bowler who had conceded less than six an over in the tournament before the match and had figures of 1-5 after his first two overs.

Warner’s 50 came off 35 balls, his fourth this season and 22nd of his IPL career, and while he was at the crease, Hyderabad looked like they could push their score up to around the 180 mark.

But once Warner fell, Hyderabad erred on the side of caution and while they didn’t lose too many more wickets in a hurry, their run-rate spiralled downward quickly.

Henriques and Naman Ojha added a patient 46 for the fourth wicket, but the Punjab bowlers maintained their discipline on what was later described by Boult as a dry surface.

Ojha fell for 28 from 26 balls to Axar in a bid to accelerate the scoring and Henriques's innings of 30 from 32 balls would end in the final over of the innings as he looked to ramp one over fine-leg, only for the ball to ricochet off his bat on to his stumps.

With five overs remaining, the Sunrisers had been throttled to just 3-104 and the 150 they eventually scored came via Ashish Reddy’s twin blows for six in the final over from Sandeep.

Patel’s 2-25 from four was the pick of the bowling while Johnson conceded 39 from his four while claiming two wickets.

Chasing 151 for victory, Punjab didn’t need someone to blaze away from ball one but did require a batsman to show solidity right through the chase. But they fell to 2-13 in the fourth over, losing Manan Vohra and Shaun Marsh to inside edges, and the target was already looking distant.

The partnership between Murali Vijay and Bailey, although slow early on, looked to be consolidating the hosts when the sequence of two quick wickets was repeated.

First Bailey failed to find the middle of the bat and hit one straight to mid-off off Henriques and then an over later, Vijay went for an improbable second run, was sent back by David Miller and was found short by some distance.

Miller didn’t last too long himself. In an attempt to up the ante - the Kings XI were going at less than six an over at that stage - he came down the track to Karn Sharma but lobbed a skier for Boult. Punjab had lost half their side for 72 and needed a further 79 from 46 deliveries.

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Axar Patekl loses his stumps in the chase // BCCI

After a slow start, the Saha-Patel partnership finally got moving with five overs remaining. Henriques (1-30 from four) and Bhuvneshwar were hit for six off the final deliveries of the 15th and 16th overs respectively and when Boult was recalled for his final over, the 18th of the innings, Punjab needed 35 from 18 balls.

The left-armer sent Patel’s stumps cartwheeling from the first ball of the over and had Saha miscuing a pull to the square-leg fielder off the last. Just seven runs came from it, and Punjab had slumped to seven down to eventually lose by 20 runs.

The Kiwi speedster ended with figures of 3-19 from his four and had a man-of-the-match award for his efforts, while his Sunrisers crept up to six points and fifth place on the ladder.