IPL 2014 7th Season The people laughing now will be Kings XI Punjab team owners who will view the million dollars they sunk on Glenn Maxwell as a bargain given the 3 match impressive wins he has arrange at the start of the season. It was the good openers Cheteshwar Pujara (35) and Virender Sehwag (30) had provided a fast start from which he could build. He had plenty of luck as well - besides the Warner reprieve, he was caught off a no-ball, and a skier was in the air for ages but evaded everybody when it landed at midwicket.
If the previous 2 victories had been thrilling innings in which Kings XI hunted down very big scores, this was an unmemorable one-sided affair after Glenn Maxwell put on a show again to lead the side to 193. Instead, the chance went down and Glenn Maxwell went on to pillage 95 off 43, including 9 sixes.
Previous season, Glenn Maxwell was the punch line to tons of millionaire jokes. He warmed the Mumbai Indians bench for much of the campaign, and was a secondary figure in the 3 matches he did play. This time, the season is only a week old, and he is not just played 3 matches, he is been the Man of the Match in each.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have a dangerous top order - any of Shikhar Dhawan, Warner or Finch can single-handedly transform a match - but they also have a hazardously unbalanced batting line-up. After the big three, the batting is frighteningly thin KL Rahul is still finding his way at this level, Venugopal Rao is not someone teams are going to worry about too much, Irfan Pathan is a spot too high at No. six and Darren Sammy is great at providing the finishing touches but less proficient at building the base.
Hyderabad Sunrisers also didn't bring on their main weapon, Dale Steyn, when Maxwell was in the midst of his carnage. Till he was 72 off 29, Maxwell faced neither Steyn nor Bhuvneshwar Kumar both of whom mutual to limit the damage at the end of the innings.Especially after L Balaji removed David Warner and Aaron Finch in the 5th over.
Score Details
KXIP-193/6(20)
SRH-121/10(19.2)
Player of the match
Glenn Maxwell (KXIP)
