The runners-up of Indian Premier League's (IPL) last edition, Rajasthan Royals embarked on a new journey with the best possible first chapter, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 72 runs. Defending a score of 203 runs in Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Sanju Samson’s bowlers restricted Hyderabad to a meagre score of 131/8.
Whilst scoring 204 runs was going to be a tall climb in itself, the road was made even steeper by Trent Boult, who bowled a spectacular opening over. The Kiwi speedster cleaned up Abhishek Sharma’s stumps with a precise yorker in the third delivery, before sending Rahul Tripathi back to the dressing room, a couple of deliveries later.
The hosts' twin debutants, Mayank Agarwal and Harry Brook tiptoed around in the next few overs – preventing the fall of a third wicket, but also scoring at a pace much slower than what the situation demanded.
The pair added 34 runs for the third wicket stand before Rajasthan eventually got their third wicket, as Sunrisers’ statement signing worth Rs 14 crore, Harry Brook could not make much of a statement as he failed to read a Yuzvendra Chahal slider. Though it was only his first match in the competition, the Englishman's first impression might not spark optimism among the Hyderabad fans, which involved him scoring 13 runs in 21 deliveries.
Washington Sundar was promoted ahead of Glenn Phillips in the batting order, but like all of their decisions on the day, this particular move by Sunrisers proved to be unyielding as well, with the all-rounder departing after scoring a solitary run.
The next couple of overs saw the fall of two more wickets – Phillips and Agarwal – with Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal hunting in pairs for the Royals. The introduction of a third spinner in the mix, in Adil Rashid, saw a six and a four being struck, before the English leggie became Chahal’s third scalp.
Stand-in skipper for Hyderabad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar could only score six runs, but cameos from two youngsters from Jammu & Kashmir, Abdul Samad and Umran Malik helped the Orange Army cut the deficit on net run rate, on a day when they had no other positives to take home from. Samad remained unbeaten on 32, with Umran being not out on 19.
Three Half-Centuries Helped RR Score 203
Earlier, the Royals scored 203/6 after being asked to bat first. They had three half-centurions in skipper Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Yashashvi Jaiswal.
The track in Hyderabad looked conducive to batters ahead of the game, and it took all but a few minutes since the start for the analysis to prove correct, with Jos Buttler and Yashavi Jaiswal taking Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowlers to the cleaners.
Playing his fourth match for the franchise, Afghan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi conceded 14 runs in the second over of the game, followed by an expensive 17-run over off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The introduction of spin had no effect on the incessant flow of boundaries either, with Washington Sundar giving away 19 runs in his first over.
The fifth over saw the introduction of T Natarajan into the bowling attack, who was offered the same treatment by Buttler, as the Englishman struck four boundaries in those six deliveries.
A couple of more boundaries in the last over of the powerplay, which was bowled by Farooqi, saw Buttler bringing up an exemplary fifty in only 20 deliveries. However, he could not capitalise on the start and reach double figures, and in the same over, Farooqi knocked his bails over.
Considering Rajasthan’s scoring rate was in excess of 14 runs per over in the powerplay, the next three overs were a tad calmer, although Sanju Samson did call for the big hits after getting his eye in. Umran Malik’s second over went for 12 runs, whereas a couple of overs later, Jaiswal brought up his half-century, facing 34 deliveries in the process.
Taking a leaf out of Buttler’s book, however, Jaiswal departed right after recording the individual milestone, and with Devdutt Padikkal scoring all but two runs, Hyderabad found the momentum swinging in their favour for the first time in the game.
Being promoted ahead of Shimron Hetmyer in the batting order, youngster Riyan Parag could not justify his team management’s decision as he fell prey to a Natarajan off-cutter after scoring only seven runs.
Natarajan returned in the penultimate over to dismiss Samson, albeit only after the Rajasthan captain had scored a fifty, whereas Hyderabad conceded all but 33 runs in the last four overs to prevent the opposition from getting into the 220s – a figure that once looked rather attainable.
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