IPL Live: Arshdeep removes Head and Markram

FOUR! Width on offer from Harpreet Brar. Rahul Tripathi stays back and slashes the ball towards deep backward point for a boundary.

SRH 45/3 in 6.4 overs vs PBKS

WICKET! Two wickets in the over for Arshdeep Singh. The stadium erupts in joy. Good length delivery from Arshdeep. Markram gets a thin edge and Jitesh Sharma does the rest. Arshdeep exults in celebration. Superb show by PBKS and the left-arm pacer.

SRH 28/2 in 4 overs vs PBKS

Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and opted to bowl in their Indian Premier League match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Both teams' playing XI remained unchanged.

Teams:

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.

Here are the impact subs for both teams

Sunrisers Hyderabad Subs: Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tripathi

Punjab Kings Subs: Prabhsimran Singh, Nathan Ellis, Tanay Thyagarajan, Rahul Chahar, Rishi Dhawan

This is the first evening game of the IPL at this venue. 63m and 70m side boundaries while the straight boundary is at 72m. This looks like a similar pitch to the day game that was played here, the pitch looks rock hard and it does look like a 200-run surface. There's an even covering of grass, the power packed SRH batting line-up will enjoy playing here. Plenty of runs here tonight, not much dew expected either. Another high scoring affair.

- BY Deep Das Gupta and Simon Katich

Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan sent a message to the home fans to fill the stadium and be at their loudest for their upcoming home game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday.

After an inspiring win over the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, the PBKS are all set to return home for their next encounter of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League.

PBKS will face SRH at the new PCA Stadium, Mullanpur, and this will be the first night match at the stadium.

Dhawan and head of cricket development, Sanjay Bangar expressed their excitement ahead of returning to their home stadium.

Host Punjab Kings (PBKS) will be up against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the match number 23 of the Indian Premier League, at Mullanpur Cricket Stadium, here on Tuesday.

Hyderabad and Punjab have faced each other in 21 matches in IPL.

Out of these 21 games, Hyderabad have won 14 whereas Punjab have come out victorious on 7 occasions.

Punjab Kings are returning to their home stadium in Mullanpur after three away matches against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Bairstow is excited to come back home for the next four games against SRH, Rajasthan Royals (RR), Mumbai Indians (MI) and GT.

The English batter expects fans to turn out in large numbers for the matches and thanked them for their support.

In four games this season, Bairstow has scored 81 runs in four innings at an average of 20.25 and a strike rate of over 158. His best score is 42.

Bairstow played 28 matches for SRH, scoring 1,038 runs at an average of 41.52 and a strike rate of 142.19. He scored a century and seven fifties for the team, with the best score of 114. Bairstow also shared a destructive and highly popular opening partnership with Australian opener David Warner.

Bairstow joined Punjab in 2022. Since then, he has played 15 matches for the franchise, scoring 334 runs at an average of 22.27 and a strike rate of over 147. He has scored two half-centuries for the side, with the best score of 66.

Ahead of his side's Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Punjab Kings (PBKS) batter Jonny Bairstow expressed excitement about playing against his old franchise and to meet some "old friends".

SRH will be locking horns with PBKS at the Mullanpur Stadium on Tuesday. SRH are at the fifth spot in the points table with two wins and two losses. Punjab, who also have the same win-loss ratio and points as SRH, are placed sixth due to an inferior net run rate.

Speaking in a video by PBKS on X, Bairstow said that he has had some amazing memories with SRH, a franchise he represented from 2019 to 2021, his first three years in the IPL.

For Hyderabad, the likes of Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have conceded too many runs.

Despite all his experience, Bhuvneshwar has struggled with the new ball though he managed a wicket in the last game. T Natarajan, who returned after missing two games in between, has also claimed four wickets so far.

Skipper Pat Cummins, who has taken five wickets in four games, has looked good but he will need consistent support from his other bowlers.

The Sunrisers bowlers dished out a lot of variations like cutters and slow balls to trouble the batters and they would hope to keep the momentum against the Kings.

Bowling department remains a concern for both teams. While Punjab has struggled at the death overs, Sunrisers faltered with the new ball.

South African pacer Kagiso Rabada emerged as their best bowler with six wickets, but inconsistencies of the likes of death-over specialist Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel is a concern. Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar has also been expensive though Harpreet Brar has done well so far.

The likes of Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram have consistently taken the attack to the opposition bowlers, providing the team with blistering starts.

PBKS too have plenty of big-hitting potential with their batting line-up boosting off Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone. But apart from the skipper, none has been able to consistently put up a show so far.

Punjab will hope that their Indian players -- Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma -- step up just like Shashank Singh, who pulled off a jailbreak in their last match against Gujarat Titans with his highest ever T20 score -- 61 runs from 29 balls.

Both the teams are coming into the match after a win and it could well be a battle of the powerplay when they face off at the the newly-built Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Cricket Stadium, which will host only its second IPL game on Tuesday.

An inconsistent Punjab Kings will hope to come out with an attacking display to match the ultra-aggressive approach of Sunrisers Hyderabad as the two teams clash in a mid-table battle in the IPL on Tuesday.

Both SRH and PBKS have two wins and two losses from their four matches to be tied with two other teams in the middle with four points and they will be desperate to break out of the mid-table logjam first.

While SRH have been unpredictable sometimes they have displayed their might with the bat with their top-order firing on all cylinders on most occasions. But the same cannot be said about the Kings.

SRH recorded the highest team total in the history of the IPL en route their win over Mumbai Indians, while they also notched up a convincing six-wicket win over reigning champions Chennai Super Kings on Friday.