Sunrisers Hyderabad 167 for 0 beat Lucknow Super Giants 165 for 4 by ten wickets.
A word on the fear surrounding SRH batting first. It was that fear, in part, that prompted LSG to bat first. And then they ran into Bhuvneshwar, who was unerring with his length and drew movement off the pitch. Quinton de Kock - 66 off 66 from Bhuvneshwar in T20 cricket - managed just 1 of 4 from him, those four balls including a near dismissal and his wicket, caught superbly by Nitish Reddy at deep square leg.
It was a sensational catch made to look easy as Reddy took it over his head, threw it back into the field, stepped out, and came back to complete the catch, but Sanvir Singh soon outdid him with a low diving catch at mid-on to send Marcus Stoinis back. Bhuvneshwar ended the powerplay with figures of 3-0-7-2. Add to that Shahbaz Ahmed's 2-0-9-0 and LSG had had their worst powerplay of the year: 27 for 2.
IPL debutant Sri Lankan leg-spinner V Viyaskanth kept the lid on after the powerplay, only for Krunal Pandya to inject some life into the innings by hitting Jaydev Unadkat for consecutive sixes, the 999th and 1000th of the tournament. The first was an extraordinary straight hook to a head-high slower bouncer over long-on. Little did we know that by the end of the night, the shot would be a footnote.