Hyderabad, Apr 29 (UNI) Kings XI Punjab couldn't handle the pressure of a huge total posted by the home team as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated them by 45 runs in the IPL match here at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday.
Despite hard efforts made by Lokesh Rahul, who played handsomely in a difficult situation and scored 79 runs off 56 balls, the home team lost the match.
An off cutter on length from Khaleel, Rahul tried to hit it over cover but the ball went really high towards mid off and Kane from cover ran away and took a dive and caught him. Punjab's best batsman departed. Khaleel took his 3rd wicket.
While chasing a target of 213 runs Punjab didn't started well and on a score of just 11 runs they lost Chris Gayle (4). It was a huge blow for Punjab as Gayle could have turned the match and easily helped Punjab to achieve the target. Gayle went for big shot but eventually ended up in losing his wicket. He was caught by Manish Pandey on Khaleel Ahmed's ball.
Mayank Agarwal with Lokesh Rahul managed to keep their score board running and the duo sticthed a 56-runs-partnership for the second wicket which gave some hope to the home team but couldn't continue for long as Agrawal departed on a score of 27 runs off 18 balls.
After Agrawal dismissal, there wasn't any partnership which could have helped Hyderabad to reach the target.
Nicholas Pooran (21) and David Miller (11) too departed after adding a few runs to their team total.
Soon, after the departure of Lokesh, Simran Singh too walked to pavilion on a score of 16 runs off 17 balls. Singh managed stayed on the crease with Lokesh as compare to Pooran and Miller.
Home team skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (c) was dismissed for a duck while Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and scored one run each.
For Hyderabad, Khaleel Ahmed and Rashid Khan took three wickets each, while Sandeep Sharma took two wickets.
Earlier, Put in to bat, riding on David Warner's brilliant innings of 81 runs in 56 balls (7 fours, 2 sixes ) Sunrisers Hyderabad posted a mammoth total of 212-6 runs in 20 overs against Kings XI Punjab.
The opening duo of Warner-Saha gave SRH a flying start and dominated over the KXIP bowlers.
Playing his last match of the ongoing IPL season, Warner continued his great form alongwith his new opening partner Saha and stiched a parternship of 78 runs for the first wicket.
Wriddhiman Saha scored quickfire 28 runs in 13 balls with the help of 3 fours and one six before walking to pavilion.

After the Saha's dismissal, Manish Pandey joined Warner and continued the domination. and stiched a parternship of 82 runs.
However, after all hurdles, finally KXIP bowlers made a comeback in match and sent both Warner and M Pandey back to pavilion in the same over.
After their dismissal, other SRH batsmen M Nabi (20 runs) and Williamson (14 runs) tried hard to post a big score, but failed and was dismissed on after another.
In death overs, KXIP bowlers took crucial wickets and restricted SRH total 212-6 runs to in 20 overs.
For KXIP, M Shami and R Ashwin took two wickets each, while Arshdeep Singh and M Ashwin claimed one wicket each.

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