IPL Week 3: Sunrisers Hyderabad magnificence and Dhoni's brilliance steal the show

The third week marked the Sunrisers Hyderabad putting up a great show in the tournament as they won all their three matches despite putting up sub-par totals on each occasion.

As CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned the pages of past to play some vintage knocks, DD skipper Gautam Gambhir handed over the captaincy to young Iyer and decided to step down from his leadership role.

Here’s a look at the talking points from the Indian Premier League week 3:

Hyderabad’s clinical run:

Williamson-led Sunrisers Hyderabad bowled Mumbai out for 87 at the Wankhede Stadium after scoring 118.

They couldn’t manage to put up a big total on the board in the next game as well as Kings XI Punjab pacer Ankit Rajpoot took a five-wicket haul and restricted them to 132/6 but Khan took the charge and returned with figures of 3/19 to send their opponents packing for 119.

In their next encounter, they managed to restrict their opponents to 140/7 and registered a comfortable win against RR.

Iyer’s starts his captaincy stint

DD skipper Gautam Gambhir stepped down from captaincy saying that he couldn’t handle pressure and handed over the captaincy to Shreyas Iyer.

Fortunately for Shreyas Iyer, his captaincy stint started with a win as they won the match against Kolkata Knight Riders by 55 runs.

As Gambhir sat out in the game against KKR, Iyer took the lead from the front and smashed a 40-ball 93* to take Delhi to 219/4.

Vintage Dhoni steals the thunder

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has exhibited an electrifying performance in the tournament so far. One of his finest knocks of 70* off 34-ball came against Royal Challengers Bangalore as CSK chased down a mammoth total of 206.

Best Knock

Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten 93 off just 40 balls which included three fours and ten sixes was the highlight of the week. Iyer certainly revived his franchise’s hopes with his knock.

Best Spell

Ankit Rajpoot’s five-wicket haul went straight down into history as he became the first player to return with figures of five-for for Kings XI Punjab. Though his performance earned him the Man of the Match award, Punjab ended up losing the game against Hyderabad.