IPL 2021: Roy, Williamson steer SRH to easy win; battle for playoffs gets complicated
Dubai, Sep 28 : Jason Roy and captain Kane Williamson displayed some brilliant cricketing shots as Sunrisers Hyderabad registered their second win of this season, beating Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in the 40th match of the IPL 2021 here on Monday.
Despite the win, Hyderabad still remain at the eighth position of the table with four points in ten matches. And Royals are in the sixth position with eight points. RR are still pretty much in contention for the playoffs race. Well, according to stats, even SRH has got a slight ray of hope with this thumping victory. There is a clutter in the middle of the table, and it has further got complicated.
Coming back to the match, Hyderabad reached their target with ease. Chasing 165, the Orange Army got off to a blistering start as a flurry of boundaries unleashed by openers Roy (60) and Wriddhiman Saha (18) took them 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 quickfire 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. Things were looking difficult for SRH at that time but Williamson kept his cool.
Abhishek Sharma (21 not out) then joined forces with captain Williamson (51 not out). They both stitched together a 48-run partnership off 33 balls to take SRH home comfortably 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 Delhi Capitals' 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 in his first over, but 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 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.
At 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, Kame 51, Abhishek 21, Lomror 1-22).