Sunrisers Hyderabad opened their account in IPL 2023, riding the performances of their bowlers and No.3 batter Rahul Tripathi (74 not out) to beat Punjab Kings by eight wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan churned out yet another innings of quality and stood tall amid the ruins with a 66-ball unbeaten 99 that had lifted his team to 143/9 after the Sunrisers won the toss and opted to bowl first.

Spinner Mayank Markande did the star turn for the Sunrisers with figures of 4/15 to leave Punjab Kings reeling at 88/9 in the 15th over. Quicks Marco Jansen and Umran Malik struck twice each.

Thereafter, thanks to Tripathi and skipper Aiden Markram’s unbroken 100-run stand, the Sunrisers strolled home with 17 balls to spare. Markram was unbeaten on 37.

Earlier, even as Punjab Kings lost wickets at regular intervals, Dhawan showed his teammates how to do it with his incredible knock.

Dhawan remained resilient as he smashed the Sunrisers bowlers in the slog overs to give some respectability to the team total. Helping Dhawan along the way was Bhuvneshwar, who spilled three chances to let the opener off.

Yet, that doesn’t take the sheen away from Dhawan’s knock as it featured some wonderful shots.