IPL 2023, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) vs Rajasthan Royals (RR) Top Performances: Jos Buttler-Yashasvi Jaiswal's 85-run stand, Sanju Samson's 55 and Trent Boult's 2-21 are top performances. Rajasthan Royals seal emphatic win against Sunrisers Hyderabad and move to top.
Brief Scores: RR 203/5 (Samson 55, Buttler 54, Natarajan 2/23) beat SRH 131/8 (Samad 32, Chahal 4/17, Boult 2/21) by 72 runs.
Player of the Match: Jos Buttler (54 runs in 22 balls)
Hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), who finished eighth on the points table of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, locked horns with Rajasthan Royals, the runners up of the last season, for the fourth game of the sixteenth season of the IPL 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Even though Royals was defeated by Sunrisers in their final face off, both the teams have a tight head-to-head against each other with a margin of eight wins for each of them.
Hyderabad missed anchor and experience in their top order
Even in an aggressive batting line up, one of the vital aspects for the team is to have someone who would do the job as an anchor to stay till the end but Hyderabad did not have one in their batting line up. They lost wickets at a cluster and no one stood in the middle.
With the absence of their leader Aiden Markram, the batting looked to be really fragile. They need to find a way to add some experience and calmness in the top order of the batting line-up.
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Sharp and intense Royals began their campaign with a huge victory
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar, on winning the toss, opted to bowl first on the white color pitch that was covered with dried grass and looked solid for batting. Harry Brook made his IPL debut while Jason Holder was set to play his first game for the Rajasthan Royals.
Put into bat first, the opening combination of Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal blew away the new ball bowlers of the Sunrisers Hyderabad to put on a 85-run opening partnership within the powerplay. They carried the momentum to reach 122/1 at the half way mark. They slowed down a little bit in the middle phase to collect 160/3 after 15 overs but Sanju Samson’s wild knock promoted them to 203/5 in their allotted 20 overs.
Chasing 204, Sunrisers Hyderabad was nowhere in the chasing as they lost crucial wickets in the powerplay to end on 30/2. The runs were not coming from both the ends as the pressure was getting on the batters. They could reach to 48/5 at the halfway mark before making their way to 85/7 in 15 overs. Some big shots at the end from Umran Malik and Abdul Samad put them to a respectable total of 131/8 in 20 overs, losing by 72 runs.
Let’s take a look at the top three performances from the game between SRH and RR
Buttler-Jaiswal wreaked havoc with 85-run opening partnership
One of the best things happened for Rajasthan Royals in their last campaign was the fearless batting from their opening combo of Jos Buttler and young Yashasvi Jaiswal. On a good batting surface, they set the platform early for their team.
Jaiswal began with a beautiful straight drive against Bhuvneshwar Kumar before flicking Fazalhaq Farooqi in the mid-wicket region for the same result. Buttler joined the party nailing Bhuvneshwar over mid-wicket for a six before pulling Washinton Sundar for two consecutive over boundaries over long-on and deep square leg.
Buttler then cracked four boundaries in the first over of Thangarasu Natarajan from point to the mid-wicket regions. He now has 29 runs in 15 balls against Natarajan without getting dismissed. Buttler then took on Farooqi in the last over of the powerplay. He smashed the left-handed bowler in the deep square leg for three boundaries to celebrate his 16th IPL fifty in 20 balls.
Buttler, who ended on 54 runs in 22 balls with the help of seven boundaries and three sixes, now has scored three IPL fifties within the powerplay as Rajasthan Royals scored their highest powerplay score of 85/1.
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Trent Boult broke Hyderabad’s back in the powerplay
One of the greatest weapons for the Royals have been Trent Boult who with the new ball in the powerplay has been consistent in breaking the back of the opponents.
After two swinging deliveries, Boult broke the stumps of the Abhishek Sharma on a three-ball duck with a cracking yorker. Two balls later, Boult sent back Rahul Tripathi on a second ball duck. He now has dismissed Tripathi twice in 17 balls besides going for just 14 runs in T20s.
He also went for just one boundary in the powerplay as he finished with 2/21 in his four overs including a maiden. He now has 94 IPL wickets in 79 games. Later, Chahal supported him immensely with his figures of 4/17 in his four overs to become the leading wicket taker (170) as a spinner in the IPL.
Sanju Samson powered Royals to a competitive total with 55 run knock
By the time Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson arrived to the crease, his team was flying high with 85/1 in the powerplay but someone was needed to stay till the end.
Samson didn’t let the momentum dying as he ramped Umran Malik over the wicket keeper’s head for a boundary before smacking him for the same result in the third man region. He pulled Adil Rashid over mid-wicket for a beautiful six before drilling Washington Sundar over long-off for a six.
In between those, he was never shy of running those vital singles and doubles. Samson cleaned the long-off region for another six to now have 21 runs in 12 balls in T20s against Rashid without any dismissal. With a single, Samson notched up his 18th IPL fifty in 28 balls. He now has four fifties in his first innings of the IPL since 2020.
He finished on 55 runs in 32 balls to now have 3581 IPL runs in 139 games at a strike rate of 136.16.
Points table scenario and what’s next
With a huge victory, Rajasthan Royals topped the table with a massive net run rate of +3.60 while Sunrisers Hyderabad was crushed at the bottom.
Lucknow Super Ginats (LSG), fresh from their opening victory will take on the four-time champions (CSK) on April 3 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
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