Jonny Bairstow of SunRisers Hyderabad fell three runs short of his hundred but his 55-ball 97 runs knock was enough for his team to secure a 69 run victory against a hapless Kings XI Punjab who were defeated again as they are at the bottom of the points table. Jonny Bairstow became one of KXIP spinner Ravi Bishnoi‘s three victims.
Jonny Bairstow had scored a century- 114 in his debut IPL appearance in 2019 where he scored 445 runs averaging 55.62. In IPL 2020, he has scored 241 runs in 6 matches averaging 40.16 with three scores in excess of 50. KXIP slumped to their fifth loss in 6 matches while SRH have leapt to the 3rd spot with 3 wins and 3 losses.
Jonny Bairstow Scores 97 As SRH Win To Move Up To 3rd Spot
Jonny Bairstow scored 97 and was particularly severe on Ravi Bishnoi who finally removed both the openers. In the eighth over, Bishnoi conceded 18 runs as Jonny Bairstow hit 1 four and 2 sixes in the last three balls. The wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow partnered SRH skipper David Warner and the duo stitched 160 runs for the first wicket before Ravi Bishnoi stuck.
SRH lost 5 wickets within 15 runs and slumped to 175/5 from 160 for no loss. Kane Williamson and Abhishek Sharma then resurrected the innings by scoring at a strike rate of 200. SRH finished on 201/6 but KXIP could only manage 132 despite Nicholas Pooran‘s 77. Nicholas Pooran hit 4 sixes and 1 boundary in Abdul Samad’s only over where the latter conceded 28 runs.
But after scoring the quickest 50 in IPL 2020 in only 17 balls, Nicholas Pooran finally departed on 77 off 37 balls. None of the other batsmen could score more than 11 runs. Rashid Khan was once again wrecker in chief with 3 wickets in 4 overs giving away only 12 runs, including a maiden over. KL Rahul and Prabh Simran Singh scored 11 each but none other could cross double-digit score.
Jonny Bairstow Was Pleased And Says It Is Fun To Bat With David Warner
Jonny Bairstow, who unanimously received Man of the Match award, said that it was good fun to bat alongside David Warner. SRH skipper David Warner scored his 50th 50+ score in IPL and was out on 52 by Ravi Bishnoi. David Warner now has scored 227 runs from 6 matches in IPL 2020 and 4933 runs from 132 matches overall.
IPL
“I was pleased, obviously my third fifty, but the consistency of getting them back-to-back is key. [Batting with Warner] It’s good fun, we know what a quality player he is. I think it was his 50th fifty. That number speaks for him. Obviously the dimensions and pitches here are different from conditions we expect in India. The temperature is pretty different as well. [Defending the total] The guys held their nerve. We knew that with them picking six batters [we would be in the game],” Bairstow said in the post-match presentation.
David Warner (46 IPL fifties) heads the list of batsmen with maximum IPL fifties ahead of Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma who has 38. Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan follow the next with 37 fifties each. David Warner also has 4 centuries and he is third in the list of maximum IPL centuries behind Chris Gayle (6) and Virat Kohli (5).
Jonny Bairstow also noted that the conditions in UAE are different from India and SRH were sure of winning considering the composition of KXIP who played with only 6 specialist batsmen.