IPL 2020, SRH vs KXIP: Warner-Bairstow Duo’s 5th Century Stand Powers Hyderabad To Daunting 201-Run Total

IPL 2020, SRH vs KXIP: Openers David Warner and Jonny Bairstow’s terrific start powered SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) to set a challenging  target of 202 runs against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Thursday in Game 22 of the thirteenth edition of Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai (UAE). ALSO READ | IPL 2020, SRH vs KXIP: Head To Head Record, Top Run Scorers, Leading Wicket Takers And More

The duo stitched a 160-run partnership for the first wicket, making it their fifth century stand with now only second to the Shikhar Dhawan-Warner pair, which has six.

After the blitzkrieg Warner and Bairstow unleashed last year with four century partnerships and aggregating 791 runs, they had failed to produce similar fireworks this season with just one half-century stand.

Innings Break!

A 40 ball 52 by Warner and a brilliant 97 off 55 by Bairstow, propel #SRH to a total of 201/6 on the board.#KXIP chase coming up shortly. Stay tuned.#Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/pCE0LpW9ln

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) October 8, 2020

But today, the duo returned to old ways, hammering their first century stand of the season, the fifth of their IPL career to power SRH to a challenging total of 201/6 wickets in 20 overs.

Both Warner and Bairstow put on 160 in 15 overs to set the tone for the team. However, it was Bairstow who did the most damage for KXIP by scoring 97 off just 55 deliveries. David Warner made 52 off 40 balls.

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The two had added 34, 1, 77, 24 and 18 in the earlier games this season.

After the blistering opening stand by Warner and Bairstow, Hyderabad looked all set to post a Mammoth total in excess of 220. However, Punjab pulled things back by slipping in a couple of economic overs in the middle and later stages of the innings.

Ironically, they both fell to Ravi Bishnoi in the 16th over as SRH, looking for a gigantic total in the absence of their bowling mainstay Bhuvneshwar Kumar, lost their way afterwards.

After Bishnoi’s crucial breakthroughs, it was young medium pacer Arshdeep Singh who bowled with a lot of control and deception to tighten the screws on the opposition.

Arshdeep dismissed Manish Pandey and the hard hitting Abdul Samad to get KXIP back into the game.

There was a bit of a late flourish by Kane Williamson and Abhishek Sharma towards the fag end of the innings to help SRH edge past the 200-run mark and set a competitive total.