IPL 2019, KXIP vs SRH: The best captaincy move of the day

The 22nd game of the Indian Premier League season was played between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab at Mohali. The Punjab Captain Ravichandran Ashwin won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch which everyone thought was a batting paradise. However, it was nothing like that as the ball was not coming to the bat and stroke play was difficult. Sunrisers lost Bairstow in the second over. Since that it was a cautious effort from Hyderabad to not lose wickets. It was clearly evident that the 2016 Champions rely heavily on their openers.

Hyderabad was slowly progressing but at the same time kept on losing wickets. The backbone of the team, David Warner stood tall and scored another half-century. But it was an extremely slow inning according to his standard. It was the seventh consecutive fifty Warner against Punjab. Apart from this, there are very few notable innings from Hyderabad. The last over flourish from Deepak Hooda helped the visitors to reach exactly 150 runs after 20 overs with Warner unbeaten at 70.

Chasing a tricky target, Punjab lost Gayle's wicket early as he got out to Rashid Khan's first ball of the match. Rahul learned from the last game and ensured that he scores at a fairly decent pace. The wicket-keeper batsman scored a sublime half-century. Mayank Agarwal supported him well from the other end and also got to a 50. However, the hosts found themselves in a spot of bother when they lost the wickets of Mayank and David Miller in the same over. However, Rahul ensured Punjab crossed the finishing line and took two vital points.

The best captaincy move of the game came from Ashwin, who gave the ball to Mujeeb to bowl in the second over. It looked like Punjab did their homework properly as they knew that the English opener would struggle against the spinner. As expected Mujeeb removed Bairstow in his first over. It was a great call from Ashwin which denied momentum to Hyderabad's innings very early. Bairstow got out to a spinner for the sixth time in this season.

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