IPL 2022, PBKS vs SRH: After Umran Malik’s searing spell, Aiden Markram gets Sunrisers Hyderabad to 4th successive win

Umran Malik added a few degrees to the sweltering heat at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai with a four-wicket burst, including an excellent three-wicket maiden final over. Aiden Markram later finished off in style with a towering six over long-off to help Sunrisers Hyderabad outclass Punjab Kings by seven wickets, and register their fourth win on the trot. All the four wins for the Sunrisers have come while chasing and they have found a new hero each time. On Sunday, Markram (41 not out) and Nicholas Pooran (35 not out) shouldered the responsibility with an undefeated 75-run stand to guide SRH race to the target with seven balls to spare.

Markram and Pooran joined hands after leg-spinner Rahul Chahar raised Punjab Kings’ expectations of a comeback with the crucial breakthroughs of opener Abhishek Sharma (31 off 25 balls) and Rahul Tripathi (34 off 22 balls), after the pair had set the tone with a 48-run stand.

But the star of the show was the 22-year-old Malik, whose final over heroics restricted Punjab to a below par 151, built mainly around Liam Livingstone’s counter-attacking 60 off 30 balls (5x4, 4x6) that gave the side some semblance of a total.

Having bailed out the Kings from a precarious start, Livingstone departed on the final ball of the penultimate over, leaving the final over to the likes of Odean Smith and the tailenders. However, the Jammu and Kashmir pacer (4/28) seized the limelight with three scalps to become only the fourth bowler to bowl a maiden in the 20th over in the IPL.

Earlier, all Punjab Kings needed was solidity after being reduced to 61 for 4 after seven overs, and Livingstone raised his hand with his third half century of the season. He found a perfect partner in M Shahrukh Khan (26 off 28