Royals huff and puff past SRH

Rajasthan win off the final ball to stay on top with fourth straight victory

Riding on Ajinkya Rahane’s half-century, Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets to notch up their fourth consecutive win in this edition of the IPL here on Thursday.

Chasing a modest 128 for a win, the table-toppers made heavy weather of the run chase, achieving the target off the last delivery of the match.

The SRH bowlers did well to take the match that far but Rahane’s 56-ball 62 proved to be the difference between the two sides.

Man-of-the-match Rahane, who registered his first half-century of this season, and Sanju Samson (26) worked well for their 64-run opening stand before a few wickets made the match exciting in the end.

A chance for SRH came in the seventh over when Samson clubbed the ball in the mid-off region but the skier was floored by Ashish Reddy after the fielder got to the ball by making good ground but failed to latch on to it. The unlucky bowler was Praveen Kumar.
But come the 11th over and Ravi Bopara was more than lucky as wicketkeeper Naman Ojha came up with a brilliant diving catch to send back Samson to give SRH some hope.

The wicket did dry up the flow of runs for the visitors, but the lack of runs on the board helped their cause as Rahane stayed on with skipper Steven Smith (13) to bring them closer to a win.

Smith (135 in 4 matches), who was overtaken by opposition captain David Warner (131 in 3 matches) in the first innings, edged out the Australian in the run-scorers list but Rahane (155) it was who surpassed the two to wear the Orange Cap.

Smith though was done in by leg-spinner Karn Sharma in the 14th over and Bopara struck for the second time in the very next over to get Karun Nair (1) caught and bowled.
Rahane, whose knock was laced with nine boundaries, couldn’t enjoy taking the team to the finish line as Trent Boult got the top-scorer clean bowled in the 19th over.

Needing five to defend from the final over, Praveen bowled well but James Faulkner (6 not out) hit the winning four off the final ball. Stuart Binny did well to stay unbeaten on 16.

Earlier, backing Smith’s decision to field first on a slowish track, RR bowlers Dhawal Kulkarni and Pravin Tambe picked up two wickets each to restrict SRH to 127 for five in 20 overs.

Poor start

SRH did not have the best of starts after losing their top four batsmen for just 35 runs but a 52-run fourth wicket partnership between Ojha (25) and Eoin Morgan (27) did put a stop to the wicket-fall though only for a while.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan was the first to go after being caught behind off Dhawal Kulkarni (2-9) post a scratchy 10-run stay at the crease.

Warner (21) was unlucky after Rahane ended the in-form openers blitz in the middle with a direct throw to run him out.

score board

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: David Warner (run out) 21, Shikhar Dhawan c Samson b Kulkarni 10, KL Rahul lbw Kulkarni 2, Naman Ojha b Tambe 25, Eoin Morgan lbw Tambe 27, Ravi Bopara (not out) 23, Ashish Reddy (not out) 13. Extras (B-1, W-4, NB-1) 6. Total (for 5 wkts,  20 overs) 127.

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-35, 3-35, 4-87, 5-96.Bowling: Tim Southee 4-0-30-0, Chris Morris 3-0-23-0, Deepak Hooda 2-0-11-0, Dhawal Kulkarni 3-1-9-2, James Faulkner 2-0-20-0, Stuart Binny 2-0-12-0, Pravin Tambe 4-0-21-2.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Ajinkya Rahane b Boult 62, Sanju Samson c Ojha b Bopara 26, Steve Smith c Warner b Karn 13, Karun Nair c&b Bopara 1, Stuart Binny (not out) 16, James Faulkner (not out) 6. Extras (B-1, LB-2, W-4) 7. Total (for 4 wkts, 20 overs) 131.
Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-84, 3-91, 4-118.

Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-25-0, Trent Boult 4-0-31-1, Praveen Kumar 4-0-30-0, Karn Sharma 3-0-19-1, Ravi Bopara 4-0-18-2, Ashish Reddy 1-0-5-0.