Sunrisers Hyderabad won their first match of the IPL 2023 season by defeating Punjab Kings by 8 wickets in the 14th match. This was Punjab’s first defeat of the season, as they had won their previous matches against Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals.
The loss pushed Punjab down to the sixth place in the IPL points table, as their batting collapsed in this match. None of the batsmen could perform, except for skipper Shikhar Dhawan and all-rounder Sam Curran, who were the only ones to score in double digits.
Despite the batting collapse, Shikhar Dhawan played an outstanding inning for Punjab Kings to help them put up a decent total on the board. As wickets kept tumbling at the other end, the left-handed opener held firm, carrying his bat through the inning. Dhawan faced 66 deliveries, smashing 12 fours and five sixes on his way to a brilliant unbeaten knock of 99 runs at a strike rate of 150.
After his impressive innings, during the post-match presentation ceremony, Dhawan playfully asked cricket expert Harsha Bhogle if he was content with his strike rate.
This was in reference to a tweet by Bhogle in which he had expressed concerns about Dhawan’s strike rate. Bhogle had questioned Dhawan’s pace during his inning of 86 unbeaten against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati, but also acknowledged his acceleration in the latter half of the innings.
Dhawan jokingly asked ace cricket expert Harsha Bhogle if he was happy with his strike rate, referring to an earlier tweet by Bhogle where he had raised concerns regarding Dhawan’s strike rate. “I hope you are happy with my strike rate,” Dhawan asked Bhogle with a smile on his face.
Shikhar Dhawan's innings will raise, should raise, the question of whether you can have an anchor batter, especially in these conditions. You can appear to have increased your strike rate by the end, but the 30 balls at run-a-ball can hurt.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 5, 2023
Talking about the match, it was the Sunrisers Hyderabad who eventually won the match. Thanks to the valiant efforts of Shikhar Dhawan, Punjab Kings managed to post 143 runs on the board which was at one stage was looking like won’t even reach 100 runs.
Punjab Kings did struck two early blows to the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chase with the dismissal of Mayank Agarwal and Harry Brook. However, Rahul Tripathi and captain Aiden Markram’s unbeaten 74 and 37 runs eventually took Hyderabad over the finish line.
