Sunrisers Hyderabad get 'Mad Max' treatment

SHARJAH: The Kings XI Punjab juggernaut continues to roll. Merciless as a Twenty20 unit can get, they had bulldozed opponents in their two matches of the IPL's seventh edition and on Tuesday, they kept that thundering momentum going.
This time, the team at the receiving end was Sunrisers Hyderabad who lost by 72 runs, chasing a target of 194. Led by Shikhar Dhawan, who was listless himself, the team won the toss and elected to field first, their strategy probably being to deny Punjab the opportunity to chase once again.
The Kings XI had chased in their previous two matches, against Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals both hefty targets - and won big. On Tuesday though, Sunrisers' decision to make Punjab bat first saved them no blushes whatsoever.
Glenn Maxwell, was once again at the helm of affairs for Punjab, smashing another huge knock of 95 runs that allowed them to set up a total of 193 runs for the loss of six wickets. Maxwell walked in at No. 3 after the opening duo of Virender Sehwag and Cheteshwar Pujara had added 51 runs for the first wicket. From there on, the Aussie made the evening here in Sharjah his own, belting nine sixes and five fours to leave the Sunrisers in a state of despair.
This was no blind hitting. The Sunrisers can boast of one of the better attacks in this edition of the IPL but the likes of Dale Steyn, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Irfan Pathan and Darren Sammy ran into the one-man army who's come close to hitting a century thrice now in three matches.
In the first game, Maxwell missed his hundred by five runs, like he did again on Tuesday. In the last game, he scored 89 against the Royals, missing the landmark by 11 runs. On all three occasions, Maxwell was dropped, underlining that luck has been on his side too.
In reply, the Sunrisers began on a disastrous note and ended with one. The pressure of a target that required them to score at 9.65 runs per over right from the word go, loss of Dhawan early in the innings set them back further.