The final game of the first round of fixtures in Indian Premier League 2022 was a rather lopsided encounter between inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals and 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad as the former managed to score a massive victory by 61 runs.
Poor starts to both innings is what cost the Hyderabad franchise, as they suffered a bad hit to their net run rate early on in the season, something that might come back to haunt them in the later stages of the tournament in the event of a tie on points in the qualification spots.
Considering that the groups are only virtual with there being a combined points table, a massive defeat like this can be detrimental to Sunrisers’ hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the tournament.
Sunrisers skipper Kane Williamson won the toss at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Ground in Pune, which hosted its first game of the tournament, and put the Royals into bat. There were celebrations in the very first over as veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar got rid of the dangerous Jos Buttler, but DRS revealed that Bhuvneshwar had overstepped, giving the English star an ill-advised reprieve.
Bhuvneshwar’s bowling looked lethal with the new ball in hand, as he produced quite a bit of movement early on in the innings. However, two no balls in as many overs took some of the glory away from what was otherwise an excellent spell of fast bowling.
The Royals’ innings then proceeded to get on track as Jaiswal and Buttler looked at ease in the middle. The two added 58 runs for the first wicket inside the powerplay before the young Jaiswal was undone by Romario Shepherd. Buttler was looking dangerous at the other end before the supremely talented Umran Malik sent the Englishman back.
Sanju Samson walked in after the departure of Jaiswal, which was a puzzling decision to some, who felt that sending Devdutt Padikkal in would have kept the left-right combination intact.
The combination was shortly restored post Buttler’s dismissal, and the duo did an excellent job, as they took apart the Hyderabad attack in the middle overs, setting the Royals up for a massive total. Samson showed his class with a range of shots all over the ground as he made a case for his inclusion in the Indian T20 World Cup squad.
Padikkal played an excellent knock as well, but could not make it big as Umran Malik shattered his stumps with a quick yorker. Shimron Hetmyer, who came in at number five, did the job he did for the Delhi Capitals last season, as he finished off the innings with a flurry of big hits. Hetmyer’s 32 in 13 balls propelled the Rajasthan score above 200, setting Hyderabad a daunting target of 211 in 20 overs.
3⃣Overs
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PRASIDH KRISHNA 😵😵
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Facing an uphill task, Hyderabad got off on the wrong foot, as they began their innings in circumspect fashion. Bowler Prasidh Krishna was breathing fire with the new ball and was rewarded with a wicket, but the catch by his domestic teammate Devdutt Padikkal was a controversial one, and Williamson wasn’t happy with the verdict, as he reckoned that the ball had bounced before the catch was taken.
However, SRH’s woes continued as Prasidh struck again with an absolute pearler to snag Rahul Tripathi for a three-ball duck. His new-ball partner at the other end, Trent Boult, was also having a great time with the ball as he struck to remove Nicholas Pooran for a duck, ending his troubled stay in the middle.
Yuzvendra Chahal piled on the misery on the Hyderabad franchise, getting rid of Abhishek Sharma and Abdul Samad, as Hyderabad were reduced to 37/5 in 10 overs. The game was long gone, but the Sunrisers had to do whatever was possible to minimise the damage to their net run rate. To their credit, the Sunrisers did reasonably well, as Romario Shepherd struck a few sixes before his dismissal before Aiden Markram and Washington Sundar joined hands in the middle.
The duo added 55 runs, largely thanks to Sundar’s pinch-hitting, as he scored 40 in just 14 deliveries.
Markram also reached a half century, before the innings ended, giving the Royals a massive 61 run victory. SRH did manage to cut their losses on the net run rate, but the loss is still a huge one and will be looming large on the Orange Army unless they manage to score some big wins themselves.
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals – 210/6 (Samson 55, Buttler 35; Malik 2/39)
Sunrisers Hyderabad – 149/7 (Markram 57*, Sundar 40; Chahal 3/22)
Rajasthan Royals won by 61 runs.
