Dubai: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 8 wickets with 1.5 overs to spare in the 40th match of the Indian Premier League 2020 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
SRH won the toss and opted to be on the field bowling first. Being first to bat, RR continued with the similar opening pair of Robin Uthappa and Ben Stokes. Uthappa (19 off 13 balls) was run-out in the third over by Jason Holder who was playing his first match for SRH in the tournament. Sanju Samson (36 off 26 balls) joined Stokes and the duo added a 50-run partnership before Stokes was dismissed by Rashid Khan for 30 off 32 balls. Riyan Parag hard-hitting knock added a quick 20 off 12 balls while Jofra Archer (16 off 7 balls) helped finish the RR innings with 154 for 6 wickets.
In reply, SRH managed to score 156 runs for the loss of just 2 wickets in 18.1 overs, win the match with eight wickets. Vijay Shankar (52 off 51 balls) smashed a boundary to bring up his half-century and the victory for SRH on the last ball of the game. Top partnership between Vijay and Pandey, who remained unbeaten on 83 off 47 balls led Hyderabad to a much-need victory. The partnership was 140 and remained unbroken. With this win, Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to keep itself in contention for playoffs of IPL 2020.
SRH bounce back after losing three games in a row in IPL 2020 including the super over against KKR. They move to fifth position with 4 wins in 10 games. RR on the other hand will have a tough path to qualifying for the playoffs of the tournament. RR have won 4 games while lost 11 games in the tournament so far. They will have to win the remaining matches and hope that other results go in their favor.