SRH EARNS A ONE-RUN WIN OVER ROYALS
HYDERABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad held its nerve to earn a thrilling one-run win over Rajasthan Royals in the IPL here on Thursday. Set to chase 202, Rajasthan was restricted to 200 for seven. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the bowlers taking three for 41. The win took SRH to fourth in the table with 12 points from 10 games, while Rajasthan, despite losing, continues to be at the top with 16 points from 10 games.
Bhuvneshwar took the key wickets of Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson, both for ducks, in the first over. However, Yashasvi Jaiswal and the in-form Riyan Parag steadied the ship with a 134-run partnership for the third wicket. Towards the end, the Sunrisers’s bowlers bowled to the field, preventing the Rajasthan batters from getting boundaries at will.
Earlier, Nitish Reddy and Travis Head produced explosive fifties to power Sunrisers to a competitive 201 for three. Opting to bat, SRH opener Head made full use of an early reprieve by slamming his fourth fifty of the season with a 44-ball 58, while Nitish (76 not out in 42 balls) hit his second half-century en route a 96run stand off 57 balls for the third wicket. Nitish and Heinrich Klassen (42 not out off 19) added another 70 off 32 balls to take SRH across the 200-mark for the fifth time this season.
Head, who was dropped by Riyan Parag in the first ball of the innings, hit six fours and three sixes, while Nitish smashed eight maximums and three fours during his brutal assault.
Playing his 300th game, Yuzvendra Chahal, who has been picked for the T20 World Cup, was in the firing line as he was taken apart by the two batters, conceding 62 in his quota of four overs.
Avesh Khan (2/39) produced the first breakthrough, having Abhishek Sharma (12) caught at deep midwicket. Sandeep Sharma (1/31) then claimed a first-ball wicket, removing Anmolpreet Singh (5) as SRH scored 37 for 2 in the powerplay, its lowest this IPL.
BRIEF SCORES: SRH 201/3 in 20 overs (NK Reddy 76*, T Head 58, H Klaasen 42*) bt RR 200/7 in 20 overs (R Parag 77, Y Jaiswal 67, B Kumar 3/41)