Washout denies RR chance to reclaim 2nd spot after SRH win

Hyderabad, May 19

Abhishek Sharma bossed Punjab Kings’ bowlers with yet another explosive half-century as Sunrisers Hyderabad cruised to a four-wicket win in the IPL here today.

41 200-plus totals in the IPL season so far, the second-most in any T20 tournament, behind the 42 in last year’s T20 Blast

Opting to bat on a flat track, Punjab Kings posted an imposing 214/5 riding on Prabhsimran Singh’s 45-ball 71, which included seven fours and four sixes, and skipper Jitesh Sharma’s final-over heroics.

But SRH looked in complete control of the tall chase after losing Travis Head off the first ball and chased down the target with five balls to spare.

Abhishek went about his business with utmost nonchalance for a 21-ball fifty, his third half-century of the season. He smoked six sixes and five boundaries in his knock of 66 from 28 balls. Henrich Klaasen (42 off 26 balls) Rahul Tripathi (33 off 18 balls) and Nitish Reddy (37 off 25 balls) made handy contributions.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals paid the price for their shoddy show during the business end as a washout of their final league game against Kolkata Knight Riders pushed them to third place. — PTI

Breach of privacy irks Rohit

New Delhi: India skipper Rohit Sharma today lashed out at the IPL broadcasters for “breaching” cricketers’ privacy by recording their conversations with friends and colleagues at training and then telecasting the contents. Rohit expressed his disappointment after a video involving him and KKR’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar went viral. Rohit was seen making a request to the broadcasters to shut down the audio while recording him during his chat with Nayar. The conversation between the two took place on May 11. The audio of the chat was posted by KKR on their social media handle and fans assumed that the cricketer was speaking about leaving MI after the season. Following the controversy, the video was taken down by KKR’s social media team. On May 17, Rohit was seen having a chat with Dhawal Kulkarni ahead of MI’s fixture against LSG. Seeing himself being recorded, the opener, with folded hands, requested the broadcaster to turn off the audio.