Jaipur: In yet another nail-biting encounter in Indian Premier League (IPL 2018), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) amazingly defended 152-run target to defeat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 11 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Sunday.
SRH, under the leadership of Kane Williamson, has once again proved that they are the best bowling side in the tournament.
RR skipper Ajinkya Rahane, though held his bat but could not take his team home. He scored 65 runs off 53 balls with the help of 5 fours and a six. Rahul Tripathi failed to click and went back after adding only 4 runs off 5 balls.
Sanju Samson, however, was looking in great touch but went back after adding 40 runs off 30 balls with 3 fours and a six. Ben Stokes could not open his account while Jos Buttler departed aat the individual score of 10 runs off 11 balls.
Mahipal Lomror scored 11 runs off 12 balls before going back to the dugout, while K Gowtham departed on the second last delivery of the match after adding 8 runs off 5 balls with a boundary.
SRH bowling was once again phenomenal as all of them bowled superbly to secure the victory. Sandeep Sharma went for just 15 runs in 4 overs and bagged a wicket, while Siddharth Kaul took two important wickets and bowled a crucial 19th over conceding only 6 runs. He conceded only 23 runs.
Rashid Khan (1/31) and Yusuf Pathan (1/14) also plucked one wicket each in 4 and 2 overs, respectively.
Earlier after winning the toss, Rajasthan Royals managed to keep SRH at 151/7 despite a flamboyant 63-run knock by skipper Kane Williamson.
Williamson, who pushed himself to No 3 batting positing, scored 63 runs off only 43 balls with the help of 7 flourishing fours and 2 eye-catching sixes. Shikhar Dhawan failed to perform well today getting out at the individual score of 6 runs off 4 balls with one four.
Alex Hales, who was given a chance today by SRH, played a gritty knock of 45 runs off 39 balls with 4 boundaries, though he did not look in good touch today.
The rest of the batting department failed to execute the plans as Manish Pandey (16 off 15), Shakib Al Hasan (6 off 6) and Yusuf Pathan (2 off 3) all failed to live up to the expectations. Wriddhiman Saha remained unbeaten at 11 runs off 7 balls with 1 boundary, while Rashid Khan scored 1 run off 3 balls.
Jofra Archer once again impressed with his pace and variations picking up three wickets for 26 runs in four overs. K Gowtham also bowled exceptionally well conceding just 18 runs in four overs for two wickets.
Jaydev Unadkat and Ish Sodhi bagged one wicket each and went for 33 and 25 runs respectively in three overs each. Ben Stokes gave 20 runs in 3 overs for no wicket.