Cooper Connolly has been the lone warrior for the Punjab Kings with a stunning century in their humungous run chase of 235 runs. Despite wickets falling at the other end, he did a fabulous job to hold his ground and he did not falter much. There were a few tough chances to get rid of him but the fielders couldn’t get a hold of it. The batting unit of the Punjab Kings would think that if at least one of them supported Connolly, they could have reached even closer to the target. All the batters seemed to be in a hurry as they attempted the big shot and they found them caught in difficult situations. The kind of batting display from Cooper Connolly was of the highest order as he was very well controlled in his approach and the boundaries flowed from his bat with ease.

The greatest strength of the Punjab Kings have been their top 4 that consists of Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer and Cooper Connolly. The majority of their wins have come from the fabulous starts that has been provided by their opening pair. Cooper Connolly was alone today in his battle as he stood till the end and at least reduced the margin of defeat. The Punjab Kings dugout were appreciative towards Connolly for his efforts to take the battle till the end.

Dropped catches and top-order collapse haunt PBKS despite Connolly’s heroic century

It is fair to say that the Punjab Kings lost the match in the first innings with their dropped chances. The wicket at Hyderabad has been considered as a batting paradise and the bowlers could have done a world of good with the support of the fielders. Shashank Singh and Lockie Ferguson dropped some very important catches and those catches could have changed the entire complexion of the game. Yuzvendra Chahal extracted whatever he could from the pitch and created some excellent opportunities but Punjab Kings couldn’t capitalize on it. The carnage from the Sunrisers Hyderabad simply went on right till the end of the innings as the away side couldn’t contain them.

The Punjab Kings couldn’t do much better with the bat either as Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh were out quite early in the innings. The next wicket of Shreyas Iyer was arguably the most important of them all considering the amount of damage he can do single-handedly. Cooper Connolly lacked a partner for support and he would have loved to have at least one cautious partner at the other end. Marcus Stoinis was in decent form as he managed to find some good knocks in recent matches but the Sunrisers Hyderabad ran riot over the Punjab Kings batting unit.

 

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have moved up the table right to the top and they will be happy as they have put one foot into the playoffs. However, they do have the comfort of playing some extra games and they will have to win at least two of their next three games to guarantee their spot.