Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 72 runs in Match 4 of the TATA IPL 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Fifties from Jos Buttler (54 off 22), Yashasvi Jaiswal (54 off 37) and Sanju Samson (55 off 32) powered RR to 203/5. The RR bowlers led by Trent Boult (2/21) and Yuzvendra Chahal (4/17) then mixed skill with accuracy and discipline to maintain a stranglehold over SRH throughout the innings and restrict them to 131/8, helping RR win the match by 72 runs.
Defending 203, Trent Boult got RR off to a perfect start he cleaned up Abhishek Sharma with a brilliant yorker off the third ball and a ball later, he had Rahul Tripathi caught at slip where Jason Holder pulled off a stunning reflex catch. The first over was a wicket maiden.
RR bowled with discipline and gave away just 30 runs from the first six overs with Boult bowling a brilliant first spell of 3-1-8-2.
Things went from bad to worse for SRH as Yuzvendra Chahal cleaned up Harry Brook (13) via a skidder in his first over to reduce the home side to 34/3. RR continued to maintain the stranglehold and the pressure got to SRH as Washington Sundar miscued one to extra cover, off Holder and then Glenn Phillips hit one straight to extra cover off R Ashwin as the home side huffed and puffed to 48/5 at the half-way mark.
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SRH introduced Abdul Samad as their Impact Player replacing Fazal Farooqi.
With the required run-rate continuously rising, Mayank Aarwal (27 off 23) who held fort at one end too perished trying to accelerate as he holed out to long off, off Chahal.
RR introduced Navdeep Saini as their Impact Player in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal in the 12th over.
Adil Rashid and Abdul Samad tried to put on some sort of fight and stem the rut with a 29-run stand off 20 balls but Chahal came back to have Rashid (18 off 13) stumped and then picked up his fourth in his last over as he cleaned up Bhuvneshwar Kumar. SRH never got going right through the innings and by the time Abdul Samad (32 off 32) and Umran Malik (19 off 8) hit some lusty blows, the result was a forgone conclusion as RR cruised to a 72-run win. Chahal was the star of the show in the bowling department for RR as he finished with fantastic figures of 4/17.
Earlier, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was captaining the Sunrisers Hyderabad side in absence of regular captain Aiden Markram who was away on national duty, won the toss and elected to bowl. Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook, Adil Rashid and Glenn Phillips were handed their SRH caps. They named Abdul Samad, Vivrant Sharma, Mayank Dagar, Upendra Yadav and Mayank Markande as substitutes.
RR, on the other hand, handed debuts to KM Asif and Jason Holder. They named Sandeep Sharma, Dhruv Jhurel, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini and Donovan Ferreira as substitutes.
Yashasvi Jaiswal got RR off to a brisk start. The RR opener got off the mark in style with a four in the first over as he drove one wide of mid off and beat the fielder. He then hit a couple of fours off a flick and loft off Fazal Farooqi as he along with Jos Buttler accumulated 14 runs off the second over.
Buttler opened the maximum account as he flicked one effortlessly over deep mid-wicket off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Jaiswal hit two more fours in the over to make it a 17-run over. The duo then took the attack to Washington Sundar as Buttler cracked consecutive sixes and Jaiswal hammered a four to take 19 runs off the over and bring up RR’s 50 in just the fourth over. The carnage continued as Buttler pierced the off side field with four fours off T Natarajan. He brought up his fifty off 20 balls with two more fours and he then hit another one in the over, however, the Afghanistan pacer bounced back hard and cleaned up Buttler 54(22) off the next ball with a superb inswinger to provide some relief to SRH.
It was a cracking Powerplay for RR as they scored 85/1 in the first six overs.
Jaiswal and captain Sanju Samson contined the momentum with three more fours as RR brought up their 100 in the 8th over. The duo took an aggressive approach against Umran Malik and hit him for 24 from 2 overs as RR reached 121 at the half-way mark.
Jaiswal then brought up his fifty off 34 balls and the 50-run stand as well from 36 balls.
With the partnership swelling, Bhuvneshwar brought back Farooqi and he provided the breakthrough to send back Jaiswal 54(37), caught at deep square leg off a short ball.
RR lost one more two overs later as Umran Malik came back to clean up Devdutt Padikkal. Amid all the carnage, Adil Rashid bowled a good spell of 4-0-33-0. Samson then brought up his fifty off 28 balls.
SRH finished well as Natarajan bowled two very good overs and gave away just 10 runs, picking up the wickets of Riyan Parag and Sanju Samson 55(32). The home side conceded 33 runs from the last four overs as RR posted 203/5 from the 20 overs.
