Rahul Tewatia’s batting in death overs rescued Rajasthan Royals (RR) once again as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by five wickets in Dubai on Sunday. The all-rounder smashed an unbeaten 45 off 28 balls as RR chased down the 159-run target with a ball to spare.
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Bringing back the memories of his Sharjah innings, Tewatia struck a hat-trick of boundaries to Rashid Khan. With 2 required off the last two balls, Riyan Parag (48*) slammed a six to Khaleel Ahmed over extra cover to end the game in RR’s favour.
The duo of Riyan and Tewatia stitched an 85-run stand for the fifth wicket which is also the joint second highest 6th wicket stand in successful run chases in Indian Premier League.
RR’s decision to promote Ben Stokes (5) up the order didn’t work as the slowness of the track did him in. Left-arm pacer Khaleel got one to rear up outside the off-stump but the ball came late as Stokes, shaping for a pull, played it onto his stumps.
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Steve Smith (5) chanced Vijay Shankar’s arm in the deep but failed in the process while Jos Buttler (16) got a delivery from Khaleel that came in after the fingers were rolled over. The inside edge was taken by a diving Jonny Bairstow as Royals were reduced to 26 for 3 inside Powerplay.
Earlier, Manish Pandey struck an impressive half-century but Rajasthan Royals restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to 158 for 4 in stipulated overs. The SRH batsman ended up scoring 54runs off 44 balls.He had a 73-run stand for the second wicket with skipper David Warner (48 off 38 balls).
Kane Williamson (22 not out off 12 balls) showed his class briefly at the end, including a one-handed straight six off Royals’ best bowler Jofra Archer (1/25 in 4 overs) and ended with another off the last delivery of the penultimate over.
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The young Priyam Garg (15 off 8 balls) also made a valuable little contribution in the final few overs of the innings.
It was one of the better days for Jaydev Unadkat (1/31 in 4 overs) as his variation of slower deliveries caused some trouble for the batsmen with only 26 runs coming off the Powerplay. In all, Rajasthan bowlers managed 42 dot balls, which is seven overs without a run being scored.
Bairstow (16 off 19 balls) and Warner failed to get the ball off square and the harder they hit, the lesser distance it traversed.
(With PTI Inputs)
Source: IPLT20.com