Mustafizur Rahman stars in comfortable Hyderabad win over Punjab

Mustafizur Rahman produced figures of two for nine - the most economical numbers of the season - to help his side Hyderabad comfortably beat Punjab by five wickets in the Indian Twenty20 competition on Saturday.

Hyderabad's captain, David Warner, won the toss and opted to bowl first in their bid to clinch the third win in four matches, and his bowlers - led by Rahman - didn't disappoint as they made it difficult for Punjab's top order to cut loose.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar accounted for Murali Vijay in the third over of the match. Given the experience and power-packed Punjab middle order - in David Miller and Glenn Maxwell - Warner held Rahman back till the sixth over.

When he was finally introduced into the attack, he produced four deliveries of which Manan Vohra failed to score. The quality display paid dividends as Vohra was run out on the fifth delivery.

Shaun Marsh and Miller then hit four boundaries before Moises Henriques dismissed Miller for nine. Maxwell - who has managed scores of 4, 32, 0, 2, this season - continued his horror run and fell to Henriques for just one. Punjab had managed just 65 runs in the first ten overs.

Rahman was reintroduced into the attack in the 14th over and trapped Marsh, the top scorer, lbw for a 34-ball 40. Rahman's first over was a maiden and he conceded just one run in his second over. He conceded just two runs in his third over - the 16th of the innings- and then returned in the 20th over to dismiss wicketkeeper Nikhil Naik for 22. Rahman accounted for 17 dot balls in his four overs and conceded no boundaries.

The impressive display from Rahman and the other Hyderabad bowlers helped restrict Punjab to just 143 in their innings. Warner - the top run scorer in the tournament - combined with Shikhar Dhawan to add 90 runs for the first wicket. The impressive opening display helped put Hyderabad on course to another victory, which they accomplished with 13 balls to spare.

"Mustafizur Rahman is a special talent, Bangladesh should be privileged to have him. His change of pace and execution is brilliant," Warner said. "I'm just ecstatic. The boys bowled superbly to restrict them to a small total which we chased it down. You have to give yourself time, but when it is in your area, you have to go after it. That's the way I play. It was good to see Shikhar get into his rhythm and have some time in the middle. One of us should have ideally batted till the end, that would have been a clinical finish."