Dubai: Jason Roy and captain Kane Williamson played some brilliant cricketing shots to guide Sunrisers Hyderabad home against Rajasthan Royals in the 40th match of the IPL 2021 here on Monday. Hyderabad registered their second win of this season after beating Royals by seven wickets at the Dubai International Stadium.
Chasing 165, SRH got off to a blistering start as a flurry of boundaries unleashed by openers Roy (60) and Wriddhiman Saha (18) took SRH past 50 in just 4.5 overs. Eventually, SRH got to 63/1 at the end of the Powerplay as Saha was dismissed by Mahipal Lomror.
Roy hit a quick-fire half-century on his debut for Hyderabad before Rajasthan’s Chetan Sakariya ended his blitzkrieg.
Mustafizur Rahman then removed Priyam Garg for a duck, leaving Rajasthan at 119/3 in 13 overs. He bowled a slower ball. Garg showed the full face of the bat, but could only chip that back to the bowler, who went low and across to his right to complete the take.
Abhishek Sharma (21 not out) then joined forces with captain Williamson (51 not out). They stitched 48 runs off 33 balls to comfortably reach the target with nine balls to spare.
Earlier, skipper Sanju Samson smashed a brilliant 82 off just 57 balls to help Rajasthan Royals post 164/5.
In the process, RR captain also surpassed De’hi Capitals’s Shikhar Dhawan in the ‘Orange Cap’ race as he became the league’s highest run-getter.
The first innings powerplay was very eventful. Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed Evin Lewis on the very ball of his first over, young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and skipper Samson then guided RR to 57/1 at the end of the 7th over.
Jaiswal was dismissed for 36 as RR managed to get to 77/2 after 10 overs. Rashid Khan dismissed Liam Livingston (4) cheaply to leave RR three down.
Courtesy of a few big hits from Mahipal Lomror (29 not out), RR crossed 100 in the 14th over. He stitched an important 84-run stand with his skipper to take the side past 150. Liam Livingstone (4), Riyan Parag (0), and Evin Lewis (6) failed with the bat.
In the fag end of the innings, a good comeback from Hyderabad as they scalped two wickets and gave away just 18 runs in the last three overs.
Brief scores: Rajasthan: 164/4 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 82, Yashasvi 36, Siddharth 2-36, Bhuvbeshwar 1-28); Hyderabad: 167/3 in 18.3 overs (Jason 60, Williamson 51 not out, Abhishek Sharma 21 not out, Lomror 1-22).
(IANS)