IPL: Sunrisers surge into top four

Umran Malik’s superb performance with the ball helped Sunrisers Hyderabad to a fourth straight win in the Indian Premier League, seeing off Punjab Kings by seven wickets.

Malik took 4-28, with three of his wickets coming in a remarkable final over, as Sunrisers bowled out the Kings for 151 despite a 33-ball 60 from Liam Livingstone.

Livingstone plundered five fours and four sixes in the undoubted highlight of an innings in which Masood Shahrukh Khan (26) was the only other batter to score over 20.

Sunrisers got a wider range of contributions with the bat, Abhishek Sharma scoring 31 and Rahul Tripathi adding 34, with both falling to Rahul Chahar (2-28).

It was the unbroken stand of 75 between Aiden Markram (41) and Nicholas Pooran (35) that got Sunrisers over the line, however, doing so with seven balls to spare.

Markram finished things off in style, completing victory with a four and a six off successive deliveries.

Malik excellent at the death

Livingstone fell with the final delivery of the 19th over and Malik ensured there was no late blitz from the tail in the 20th.

He removed Odean Smith, Chahar and Vaibhav Arora before Arshdeep Singh was run out from the final ball of the innings.

Sunrisers surge continues

After an inauspicious start saw them lose their first two matches, Sunrisers are one of four teams level at the top on eight points, though they will need to improve their negative net run rate.

They have won four games in a row for the first time since 2020. (SportsMax)