Liam Livingstone smashed a quickfire unbeaten 49 as Punjab Kings defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Sunrisers lost young Priyam Garg early to Kagiso Rabada for 4.
Abhishek Sharma along with Rahul Tripathi added 47 runs for the second wicket before the latter (20) was caught at short fine leg by Shikhar Dhawan off Harpreet Brar.
Abhishek looked good in his knock of 43, before holding out to Livingstone at long on off Harpreet.
Nicholas Pooran then nicked a fuller delivery from Nathan Ellis to Jitesh Sharma for 5. Brar then claimed his third wicket by dismissing the well set Aiden Markram for 21, as SRH lost half their side for 96.
Washington Sundar and Romario Shepherd featured in a valuable 58 run stand for the fifth wicket before Ellis struck twice- first by dismissing Sundar caught and short third man, and then Jagadeesha Suchith for a first ball duck.
Shepherd remained unbeaten on 26, as the Sunrisers ended up with 157/8 in their allotted 20 overs.
For Punjab, Nathan Ellis and Harpreet Brar were the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets each.
Chasing 158, openers Jonny Bairstow and Shikhar Dhawan got Punjab off to a steady start. The duo added 28 runs for the opening wicket before the former was cleaned up by Fazalhaq Farooqi for a 15 ball-23.
Shahrukh Khan who was promoted at no 3, scored a quickfire 19 before miscuing an Umran Malik delivery to Washington Sundar at long on.
Punjab skipper Mayank Agarwal’s poor run with the bat continued, as he pulled a Sundar delivery to Suchith at deep midwicket.
Livingstone and Dhawan added 41 runs for the fourth wicket before the latter bottom edged a Farooqi delivery on to his stumps for 39.
Jitesh Sharma scored a handy 19 off 7 balls before perishing to Jagadeesha Suchith, caught at long on.
Livingstone who was let off twice, capitalized on the opportunity by smacking Shepherd for 23 runs in the 15th over.
With two runs needed debutant Prerak Mankad hit the winning runs off Umran Malik, as SRH reached the target of 158 in 15.1 overs.
England all rounder Livingstone remained unbeaten on 49 off 22 balls.