IPL 2022, RR vs SRH, Match 05, Top Performances: All-round Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrises Hyderabad by 61 runs.
Brief Scores: RR 210/6 (Samson 55, Padikkal 41, Hetmyer 32, Malik 2-39) beat SRH 149/7 (Markram 57*, Sundar 40, Chahal 3-22, Krishna 2-16) by 61 runs
Player of the match: Sanju Samson (55 off 27 balls)
The 15th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) saw its fifth game on Tuesday as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) took the field at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune in their respective first games this year.
Kane Williamson-led SRH undoubtedly missed some of their key regular figures in the likes of Rashid Khan and David Warner but welcomed some new energy in the bunch. Meanwhile, Sanju Samson-led RR welcomed a few new faces in the squad.
Rajasthan Royals first side to defend successfully in IPL 2022
Sunrisers skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to filed first; although teams batting first enjoy an upper hand on this ground in T20s with a winning percentage of 53.8. The average first innings score at MCA Stadium generally remains between 155-160.
Rajasthan Royals kicked off their innings excellently with boundaries galore in the powerplay. They didn’t let the momentum slip as on the back of Sanju Samson’s quickfire half-century, with helping hands from Shimron Hetmyer and Devdutt Padikkal, the Pink Platoon raced away to a commanding score of 210.
SRH were never in the chase after limping at 14-3 post the powerplay. They did try to put some runs on the board with late hitting from Aiden Markram and Washington Sundar who stitched a 55-run partnership but that wasn’t enough to save them from a 62-run defeat.
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Let’s dissect some of the impactful performances from the game that made a difference on the eventual result.
Samson-Padikkal partnership builds platform for an enormous total
Even though, the Royals progressed to a speedy start in the powerplay thanks to the openers, they required a solid partnership after Buttler’s wicket to lay the foundation for an electrifying finish.
Sanju Samson, who enjoyed playing against the Orange Army, being the leading run-scorer against them with 615 runs at an average of 43.92 and strike rate of almost 130, came out to bat in his 100th game for the Royals.
Since then, he was a treat to watch in the middle as he didn’t slow down the proceedings even for a single second. The power he generated in smacking those five sixes was pleasing to the eyes of RR fans.
Soon with a maximum, he reached his fifty off just 25 balls. To add more flavour, it was his third season-opener fifty-plus score (including 119 in IPL 2021) over the last three years. Also, he registered his name as the top six-hitter for RR in the league’s history.
He was well supported by Devdutt Padikkal, who smashed a 29-ball 41 in a partnership of 73-runs from 41 balls with Samson. Before today’s innings, Padikkal had aggregated just 114 runs in five innings against the Orange Army.
The former RCB opener, who was welcomed to RR at INR 7.75 crores, was given a different role at number 4 in his new side. Even though he struggled early in his innings, he caught pace at the back-end.
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Prasidh Krishna broke SRH’s back in nightmare powerplay
The last thing that Sunrisers Hyderabad expected was losing too many wickets in the powerplay and not scoring too many runs in a huge chase; well, they didn’t realise that both incidents would happen together.
Prasidh Krishna who had been bought by RR for a whooping INR 10 crores, drew first blood dismissing Kane Williamson. It was their first meeting in IPL and the SRH captain edged the ball which after pushed by Samson’s glove ended in the hands of the slip fielder.
In his very next over, Krishna sent back Rahul Tripathi for a duck. The batter, before this meeting, had a strong upperhand over his old team-mate playing for KKR with 21 runs in just 8 balls from Krishna. However, the lanky pacer got the better of Tripathi in this game.
Before this game, Krishna had just four powerplay wickets in 52 overs in the league’s history, while in his first game for RR in 2022, he finished the powerplay with figures of 3-1-2-2. Krishna got able support from Trent Boult and SRH finished the powerplay with 14-3, their worst in the league’s history.
“There was some good bounce and seam,” Krishna revealed after the game. “Hitting those hard lengths was helping me.”
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Yuzvendra Chahal hunted three wickets in the middle overs
Almost everyone was surprised when seasoned IPL campaigner Yuzvendra Chahal wasn’t retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) but RR grabbed him for just INR 6.50 crores.
Before this game, Chahal had 6 wickets in 13 overs against SRH with a dot percentage of 64.1.
Playing in his first game for the Royals, he continued to extend the good work of the pacers. With his second ball in IPL 2022, he got rid of the struggling Abhishek Sharma before sending Abdul Samad back to the hut for a personal score of 4. Coming into the last ball of his spell, he disturbed the furniture of good-looking Romario Shepherd to complete his 250th T20 wicket.
It helped Rajasthan to open their account with a victory by a humongous margin of 61 runs.
What’s to come
RCB will take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai on March 30. The former will try to win their first game of the season while the latter will hope to extend their unbeaten run.
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