'Gabbar' Shikhar Dhawan disappointed with PBKS' batting; SRH look to carry the momentum

SRH defeated Shikhar Dhawan-led Punjab Kings to register their first win of the IPL 2023.

In a low scoring encounter at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Sunrisers Hyderabad finally opened their account in the points table. They defeated Punjab Kings by a handsome margin of 8 wickets. Punjab's batters had a tough time against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen with 3 early blows put Punjab in backfoot. For Punjab, only Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran went past single digits in the scorecard. Captain Dhawan played a magnificent inning of 99 runs, yet his team could manage only 143 runs. Mayank Markande was the chief destroyer of PBKS middle order with 4 wickets.

First win for SRH in the IPL 2023

Sunrisers Hyderabad too had a cautious start to this modest chase in Hyderabad. After losing two wickets, Captain Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi built a match winning partnership and defeated Punjab. Aiden Markram was happy with SRH’s first win and praised Rahul Tripathi’s 74 runs inning. He said, “It was a great knock, it is very easy to do it when you have got a guy like Rahul at the other end”. Talking about Mayank he said, “Leaving out Rashid was not easy but it is a nice move to make… Mayank bowled extremely well and I am super happy for him”. Captain Markram is looking to carry the momentum forward.

Gabbar Shikhar gave his all to give Hyderabad a challenging total to chase. He missed out on his century by one run. His 99 runs inning helped Punjab Kings in scoring 143 against SRH. Dhawan was also awarded player of the match for his inning that took Punjab out of danger of getting bowled out for below a hundred. Talking about his batting Dhawan said, “I did not expect that I would reach there at the end of the game but I was playing according to the situation and keeping positive”. He was disappointed with Punjab’s batting and said, “It was disappointing but the way we thought the wicket was going to play It was playing differently. Sometimes it was keeping low and it was seaming”. Shikhar Dhawan is now leading the Orange cap race with 225 runs in 3 innings.