OUT! BUT PUNJAB REVIEW! Rashid Khan traps Chris Gayle with a sharp leg-spinner. It looked out in real-time. The ball-tracker confirms he is gone. He was already near the boundary ropes. He is gone for 14 off 17! Rashid Khan strikes!

PBKS are 57/3 after 10.4 overs.

FOUR! That’s a sumptuous straight drive from Gayle. Cross-seam length delivery around off and middle from Khaleel and Gayle presents the full face of the bat and effortlessly sends it racing to the long-on boundary.

HALFWAY STAGE! Chris Gayle (13*) and Aiden Markram (14*) currently hold fort.

PBKS are 55/2 in 10 overs

FOUR! Rashid Khan’s first over ends with Markram picking up his first boundary. An effective option against Rashid. Steps forward, gets down on one knee and sweeps the ball expertly for four.

PBKS are 45-2 after 9 overs.

7 off Holder’s second over. 

PBKS are 39/2 after 8 overs.

DROPPED! Khaleel Ahmed should have had Aiden Markram but he is dropped by David Warner, one of the safest pair of hands in the team. Markram looks to clear the infield but he ends up skying it. Warner, running back, fails to hold on.

PBKS are 32/2 after 7 overs.

END OF THE POWERPLAY! Jason Holder’s double has jolted #PBKS and the onus is now on Gayle and Markram to rebuild.

PBKS are 29/2 in 6 overs (second lowest powerplay score in IPL at this ground).

And he is finally here. Throughout the first 25 balls, Gayle could be seen warming up. His turn has finally come.

OUT! Mayank Agarwal also mistimes his lofted shot and he has to perish too. He looks to clear mid-off but ends up holing out to Kane Williamson. Poor shot!

PBKS are 27/2 in 4.5 overs.

Aiden Markram is the new man in

OUT! Windies all-rounder Jason Holder strikes first ball. KL Rahul looks to go over the top, trying to take advantage of the fielder but his swipe across the line of the stumps ends up in the hands of Suchith at mid-wicket.

SRH are 26/1 after 4.1 overs

FOUR! Third boundary for KL Rahul. The most convincing one so far. Gets inside the line of the ball, backs away, and paddles the ball to the fine leg boundary. 

PBKS are 26/0 after 4 overs

FOUR! He edges a ball jagging into him and the ball runs past the SRH wicketkeeper for four. Sandeep Sharma sports a smile. Can’t do much, can he?

PBKS are 19/0 after 3 overs.

Experienced campaigner in Bhuvneshwar Kumar begins by beating the outside edge of KL Rahul with a beautiful out-swinger!

FOUR! The first boundary of the evening comes off Rahul’s bat. He advances down the track, makes room and looks to go up and over the off-side but the ball runs over the slip fielder off a thick outside edge for four.

THREE RUNS! Batsmen running 3 in Sharjah is such a rarity. But Mayank and Rahul pick a triple through the backward point area. It was because of a scintillating Mayank drive on the up and Abdul Samad giving it a chase, pulling the ball back on time and saving 1. 

10 off it. PBKS are 13/0 after 2 overs

KL Rahul is off the mark with a quick single. Mayank, too, gets off the mark with a single on the very next ball. A risky single as Jason Holder at mid-on has a crack at the stumps.

A quiet first over. 

PBKS are 3/0 after 1 over

PBKS openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal have walked out to bat.

Sandeep Sharma is opening the attack for SRH.

LET’S GOO!

We are jsut 5 minutes away from the start of the second game of the day.

It’s time to shift focus to the second game of the day now. DC completed a 33-run win against RR. Now, let the storm unfold in Sharjah.

• 2: Chris Gayle is 2 catches away from completing 100 catches in T20s.

• 98: Chris Gayle needs 98 more runs to complete 500 runs against SRH in the IPL. He will become the 6th player to reach the milestone.

• 150: This will be David Warner’s 150th IPL match if he takes the field against PBKS.

• 22: Manish Pandey needs 22 more runs to complete 3500 runs in IPL.

• 2: Siddarth Kaul needs 2 more wickets to complete 50 wickets for SRH in the IPL. He will become the 3rd bowler after Bhuvneshwar Kumar (115 wickets) and Rashid Khan (86 wickets) to reach this milestone.

• 57: David Warner needs 57 runs to complete 1000 runs against Punjab Kings. He will be the 1st player to reach this milestone.

• 8: Mohammad Nabi needs 8 more wickets to complete 300 wickets in T20s.

• 39: Manish Pandey needs 39 more runs to complete 6000 runs in T20s.

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Kane Williamson(c), Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed

“I was unsure of what to do. That game it can either making you go deflating or go fearless. Everyone is keen to get ut there and turn this around. We have three changes. Fabien Allen, Porel and Adil Rashid are out. Ellis, Gayle and Ravi Bishnoi are back in the team. When you are the bottom of the table, you are still trying to figure out what your best eleven is. With Chris it gives me and Mayank a lot of breathing space at the top. Chris has always delivered for us and hope he can do that again for us today”

“We gonna have a bowl, chances of dew coming in later on and it’s a small ground. We will try to restrict them to a low score. it’s about staying tight together and making small adjustments. It’s important to keep coming up with that energy and at times it’s easy to reflect on past performances where we have done better but we need to play with that freedom. We are playing the same team.”

SRH win the toss and opt to bowl against Punjab Kings

“We have won only one game. We could have done a lot of things better as a team. One thing from now on for the rest of the games would be that we need to play together as a team and back each other. Just do the simple basics that need be done to play a team sport. A couple of more victories on the way and we will have a lot to learn and lot to take from the season. One of the best (feelings to have won consecutive games to advance to playoffs before). That’s when the real team character comes out and that’s what SRH is known for. We have done a lot of good work and just need to remember those good things and move forward. It’s definitely easier to bat in the top three especially with the wickets in Dubai. Bating No. 4 and in the middle order we need to put the foot down and play smart cricket. We did discuss on a couple of strategic and tactical things to focus on and we will see those today as well.”

“It has been a bit of a roller-coaster but super grateful to be here and for the opportunity. Nice to be involved in a tournament like this, I have enjoyed my first week or so. I did not think we played a bad game of cricket at all (speaking about the last game), obviously didn’t get over the line but a lot of positives to take from that game. The focus has been on the last couple of days, we are trying to learn from those mistakes. All in all, lots of good cricket that was played on that night and therefore alot of good positives that we can take into today. Quite a quick turnaround for us, it’s about the belief that the skills are gonna be good enough and if we can execute under pressure, hopefully, we can get a good result.”

“Yesterday there was quite some turn on offer. Today we are playing on the adjacent surface. There was 2.9 degrees turn today, the track today is much similar and I can feel that it is much soft and there are some spikes on the surface. I feel it will be better than yesterday, but not too dissimilar.”

-Murali Kartik on Star Sports

[SRH | PBKS]

Top wicket-takers: Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 19 Wickets | Arshdeep Singh – 6 Wickets

Best figures in a match: 5/19 By Bhuvneshwar Kumar On Apr 17, 2017 |3/17 By Chris Jordan On Oct 24, 2020 

[SRH | PBKS]

Highest run-getters: David Warner – 698 Runs | KL Rahul – 242 Runs

Highest scores in an innings- 81 By David Warner On May 11, 2015 | 104* By Chris Gayle On Apr 19, 2018

Best Bowling Figures:

4/13 By Lakshmipathy Balaji (Punjab Kings) Against Sunrisers

Hyderabad In 2014.

Highest Partnership:

183 By KL Rahul And Mayank Agarwal (Punjab Kings) For 1st

Wicket Against Rajasthan Royals In 2020.

Win Rate Batting First:

40% (4 Won; 6 Lost)

Highest Team Total:

228/4 By Delhi Capitals Against Kolkata Knight Riders In

2020.

Lowest Team Total:

121/10 By Sunrisers Hyderabad Against Punjab Kings In

2014.

Highest Individual Score:

106 By Mayank Agarwal (Punjab Kings) Against Rajasthan

Royals In 2020.

Will Chris Gayle, who was excluded from the Playing XI on his 42nd birthday on Tuesday, get a game today? PBKS need some reinforcements in the middle order and he could do the trick

These two put on a show against Rajasthan Royals with their 120-run stand. Can they do it again?

Bhuvneshwar Kumar possesses an impressive record against PBKS

SRH won by 9 wickets (IPL 2021, Match 14)

PBKS won by 12 runs (IPL 2020, Match 43)

SRH won by 69 runs (IPL 2020, Match 22)

SRH won by 45 runs (IPL 2019, Match 48)

PBKS won by 6 wickets(IPL 2019, Match 22)

Punjab Kings have won two of their last 5 games.

vs RR: lost by 2 runs

vs DC: lost by 7 wickets

vs RCB: won by 34 runs

vs KKR: lost by 5 wickets

vs MI: won by 9 wickets

The bottom-most SRH side have won only one of their last 5 games. 

vs DC: lost by 8 wickets

vs RR: lost by 55 runs 

vs CSK: lost by 7 wickets

vs DC: tied (DC won the Super Over)

vs PBKS: won by 9 wickets

The last time these two teams met, SRH romped home to a nine-wicket win in just 18.4 overs. PBKS, batting first, were bowled out for 120 in 19.4 overs. Khaleel Ahmed was the pick of the bowlers for Hyderabad with figures of 3/21 in his four overs. In response, Jonny Bairstow smashed an unbeaten 63 off 56 balls to lead his side over the line. Can Rahul and Punjab get one back on SRH today?

The SRH vs PBKS battle will see two of the best batsmen currently in the world go head-to-head in Dubai. While Kane has scored just 146 runs so far in the season in 5 games, KL Rahul has amassed 380 runs in 8 games and is currently the second-highest run-scorer in the season. Which batsman will score more runs today?

Both Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Banglore are currently two bottom-most placed teams in the standings.

SRH– 8th position (P-8 | W-7 | L-1 | Points-2)

PBKS– 7th position (P-9 | W-3 | L-6 | Points-6)

The Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Punjab Kings have faced each other 17 times in the IPL and SRH have dominated the overall head-to-head battle with an overwhelming lead of 12-5. They are currently 8th in the points table with 2 points and would hope to make it 13-5 and add two more points to their kitty. 

Hello and welcome to the live coverage of match 37 of IPL 2021 between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) vs Punjab Kings (PBKS) being played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Both teams, reeling at 8th and 7th, respectively, need to win to keep their already slim chances of making the playoffs alive. Both teams come into this contest on the back of a loss but one team will walk away with two points for sure. Which team will it be? Stay tuned and let’s find out!