Sunrisers Hyderabad Snatch a Thrilling Victory from Rajasthan Royals in an IPL Nail-Biter
In a match that epitomized the unpredictability of the IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad snatched a one-run victory from Rajasthan Royals in a thrilling encounter at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday.
Pat Cummins, the confident captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad, won the toss and elected to bat first. However, their start was far from ideal, as they struggled to score runs in the powerplay, losing the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Anmolpreet Singh.
Travis Head, the Australian southpaw, then steadied the innings with a composed half-century (58 off 44 balls). He was ably supported by Nitish Reddy, who played a crucial knock of 76 not out off 42 balls, hitting eight sixes and three fours.
Thanks to their efforts, Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to post a respectable total of 201/3.
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In response, Rajasthan Royals got off to a disastrous start, losing their star openers, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson, to Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the very first over.
However, Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal put on a brilliant partnership of 134 runs, reviving Rajasthan’s hopes. Parag played a swashbuckling knock of 77 runs, while Jaiswal chipped in with a valuable 67 runs but both youngsters failed to stay there till the end and finish the game.
With 27 runs required off the last 18 balls, the match seemed to be in Rajasthan’s grasp as it happens 95 out of 100 times that chasing side easily wins from that situation.
However, Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers, led by the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, held their nerve and bowled a tight line and length, forcing Rajasthan batters to take risk with their shots.
In the end, Rajasthan Royals fell short by one run, as Sunrisers Hyderabad secured a dramatic victory.
This win has put Sunrisers Hyderabad back in the race for the top four, while Rajasthan Royals will be disappointed to have let slip such a close game.
With 13 runs needed in the final over, it seemed like Rajasthan had a 90% chance of winning the match. But this is the IPL, and we’ve seen batsmen single-handedly take their teams to victory.
Rovman Powell, a powerful hitter, only needed 13 runs to win the match in the final over. It was just a matter of two hits. But as fate would have it, something else was in store, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar deserves a lot of credit.
He has been playing in the IPL for many years, so his experience came in handy. Defending 13 runs is no easy feat, and that should be clear.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 201/3 (Travis Head 58, Nitish Reddy 76 not out; Avesh Khan 2/39) beat Rajasthan Royals 200/7 (Riyan Parag 77, Yashasvi Jaiswal 67; Marco Jansen 3/41) by 1 run.
