Sunrisers Hyderabad edge Rajasthan Royals in one-run thriller
CHENNAI: Bhuvaneshwar Kumar's brilliant final over and some excellent death bowling from Sunrisers Hyderabad took them over the line against Rajasthan Royals.
The partnership of 134 runs between Riyan Parag and Yashaswi Jaiswal was not enough for the visitors, as Hyderabad won by one run.
Bhuvaneshwar took two wickets in his first over as Impact Substitute Jos Buttler and captain Sanju Samson went back without scoring a run. That did not stop Jaiswal and Parag, as both youngsters adopted an aggressive approach against Hyderabad bowlers to add 134 runs in a partnership.
Jaiswal smashed his half-century off 30 balls, while Parag achieved the milestone off 31 balls. Natarajan broke the partnership with the wicket of Jaiswal to give Hyderabad a sniff and the hosts did not look back. Rajasthan lost Parag, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel in quick succession.
With 20 runs required off the last two overs, Cummins bowled the penultimate over and gave away seven runs while taking the wicket of Jurel. Hyderabad had to pay the price for a slow over rate with only four fielders outside the ring. Bhuvaneshwar bowled tidy lines and only gave away one boundary in the final over. With two runs required off the final ball, he trapped Powell in front to give Hyderabad a win.
Earlier, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first, with Marco Jansen coming into the playing XI.
The dynamic duo of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head tried to give a good start to the hosts, but Sharma struggled to get going in the powerplay. Eventually, after a few swings and misses, Avesh Khan finally sent the youngster packing for 12 in his first over of the day. Anmolpreet Singh, who replaced Sharma, did not last long, as Sandeep Sharma also took the wicket with his first ball.
From 37/2 at the end of the powerplay, Hyderabad needed a solid partnership and Head found the perfect partner in Nitish Kumar Reddy, batting at four. The Australian batter survived a close LBW call and took that opportunity to launch the counterattack, as 18 runs came from Yuzvendra Chahal's second over.
The partnership between Head and Reddy was a mix of caution and attacking style. The duo particularly went after Chahal, as the spinner gave away 62 runs in his four overs. Head completed his fourth half-century of the season off 37 balls, while Reddy completed his 50 off 30 balls.
Head departed trying to be ultra-aggressive, but the introduction of Heinrich Klaasen only helped the Sunrisers cause.
The South African hit two back-to-back sixes off Chahal. Trent Boult was not as effective for Rajasthan as they would have wanted and he gave away 33 runs in four overs.
Klaasen kept his calm even in the final over bowled by Sandeep Sharma, who had given away just 16 runs in his three overs. Hyderabad took 15 runs in the final over of the innings to score 201 for three in 20 overs.
For Rajasthan, Avesh took three wickets, while Sandeep took one.
Brief scores: SRH 201/3 in 20 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 76 n.o, Travis Head 42; Avesh Khan 2/39) beat Rajasthan Royals 200/7 in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 77, Yashasvi Jaiswal 67; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/41)
