HYDERABAD: He is bowling like a dream ever since he made his international debut against India last June. Troubling batsmen with his slower delivery is a regular affair and that no batsman has been able to read his deliveries, speaks volumes about the talent of Mustafizur Rahman.
While everyone was still talking about his yorker to Andre Russell, the pace sensation produced a spell to remember, against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday. A maiden, two wickets and 17 dots from four overs shows complete dominance over Punjab batsmen.
Not that the opposition batsmen looked comfortable against other Hyderabad bowlers, but Rahman was a nightmare for them. Moses Henriques also delivered a good spell picking up tw0 crucial wickets. The Punjab batsmen crumbled under pressure and scored only 35 from the initial six overs.
Shaun Marsh tried to do some damage control and hit some shots out of the park, but that was also short-lived. David Miller’s struggle with the bat continued, and so it did for Glenn Maxell.
The duo are yet to fire this season. Once the backbone of Punjab’s batting, Maxwell has failed to score a fifty in his last 25 innings.
Towards the end of the innings, Axar Patel played a cameo of 36 runs to take Punjab to a decent total of 143. Debutant Nikhil Naik also tried to play some big shots but could only manage 22 of 28 balls.
Coming into this match at home on the back of two good batting performances, it was always going to be an easy task for the duo of David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan to chase that target.
Warner got off to a flier and gave Sunrisers the start they were looking for. A 31-ball 59 from the captain meant that all the other batsmen had to stay at the wicket till the end to achieve the target.
Dhawan struck around for 44 balls to score 45 runs.
Though towards the end of the chase, Hyderabad lost a few wickets, but it was the case of too little, too late for Punjab. Hyderabad crossed the finish line with 14 balls to spare. This was their third straight win and second at home.
Kings XI Punjab 143-6 in 20 overs (Marsh 40, Henriques 2/33, Mustafizur 2/9) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 146/5 in 17.5 ovs (Warner 59, Mohit 1/20).