It was a sad evening for the home fans as a collective team effort from Sunrisers Hyderabad overshadowed Jos Buttler’s heroic 95-run inning. Also, Aiden Markram’s side got their sweet revenge as they marked Rajasthan Royals’ sixth loss of the season.
After the coin was tossed at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, it fell in the favor of the home team and Sanju Samson decided to bat first. As expected, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler started hitting big from the very first over. The opening pair put up a 54-run stand before Jaiswal lost his wicket to an off-cutter by Marco Jansen.
However, Rajasthan Royals’ had a splendid power play as they scored 61 despite losing a crucial wicket. As the powerplay concluded, the spinners took over and Aiden Markram expected Mayank Markande to show his magic but Sanju Samson had no mercy for him in his eyes as he smashed two sixes in his second over.
Sunrisers Hyderabad were rotating bowlers after every couple of overs in desperate need of a wicket. However, all of their tactics were failing. Buttler completed his fifty in 32-balls with a sleek four. Hyderabad’s bowlers were constantly failing as Samson was smashing boundaries consistently.
Samson also completed his half-century while the Englishman reached the 90-run mark. Standing on the verge of his 6th IPL ton, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar ruthlessly bashed his dreams with a blazing yorker. And after a review, Buttler had to walk back to the pavilion on the score of 95 in the second last over of the inning.
The hosts claimed 17 runs off the last over and posted a gigantic target of 215 for the visitors to chase. Sanju Samson and Co were confident following the total as they already defended a similar total in their first match against the same team.
The Sunrisers’ bowling has always been their strong point but went missing against the Royals
As Sunrisers came on the ground, Anmolpreet Singh got a place in the team as the impact player. However, Sandeep Sharma gave Royals a strong start as he gave only four runs in the first over. As Singh started finding rhyme and hitting boundaries, Yuzvendra Chahal got him on a slower delivery.
Hyderabad somehow managed to cross the 50-run mark in the chase during the power play. Afterwards, Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi went on for a decent 65-run partnership. Just after Sharma completed his half-century, in the next ball, spin maestro Ravichandran Ashwin sent the opening batsman back to the pavilion as he was trying to hit a slog sweep from a foolish angle.
The 14th over arrived as a savior for the Sunrisers as the Royals leaked 19 overs in it. Thus, with a run rate of around 10, the Orange Army’s total was 146 with the loss of two after 15 overs. Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen were looking strong on both ends but the short-fire partnership was quickly broken by Chahal’s delivery as the South African was caught behind by Buttler.
Things were not in control for Hyderabad and Rahul Tripathi also lost his wicket in Yuzvendra Chahal’s last over. The leg-spinner didn’t stop there as he also dismissed the Orange Army’s skipper, Aiden Markram when he was trying to get some runs with a switch hit. Undoubtedly, the Indian spinner was the best bowler in the match as he took four wickets giving only 29 runs.
When it seemed like it was over for Sunrisers, Glenn Phillips showed up with a hat-trick of maximums against Kuldip Yadav before losing his wicket courtesy of a catch by Shimron Hetmyer at extra cover.
As 17 runs were required off the last over, Abdul Samad took the matter into his own hands and smashed a six in the second ball. Six runs were required on the last two balls, after taking a single, the situation became 5 runs off a solitary delivery.
However, Sandeep Sharma did a huge blunder and bowled a no-ball, Samad made sure his side goes home with three points as he smashed a six on the free-hit. In the last ball thriller, Phillips got was awarded the Player of the Match.
The Samson-led team will now travel to the Eden Gardens to face Kolkata Knight Riders in the hope of turning around their fortunes while SRH will enjoy a brief break before facing Lucknow Supergiants on Saturday afternoon at home.