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Rajasthan Royals pulled off a thrilling four-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad to open their campaign on a high in the Indian Premier League in Abu Dhabi last night. Needing a challenging 134 to win, Rajasthan were in serious trouble losing three wickets for just 31 on board including that of captain Shane Watson. However, Ajinkya Rahane and Stuart Binny shared a fantastic 77-run to put Rajasthan back into contention. |
Rahane departed scoring 59 but Binny stayed till the end scoring 48 not out from 32 deliveries to ensure Rajasthan crossed the target with three balls to spare. James Faulkner scored two successive boundaries in the last over off Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Rajasthan requiring seven runs off the last over.
Earlier, Kane Richardson claimed three catches and took two wickets as the Royals restricted the Sunrisers to 133 for six. Richardson claimed the wickets of the big-hitting West Indian, Darren Sammy (six) and Karn Sharma (four) in the dying stages of the innings, after Rajasthan had won the toss and sent the Sunrisers into bat first.
The right-arm fast-medium bowler also played his part in the field by holding onto catches to dismiss Aaron Finch (two), Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner.
Were it not for Warner and Dhawan, the Sunrisers would have struggled to move past the 100-run mark as the pair posted 75 for the second wicket after Finch was caught by Richardson off the bowling of Dhawal Kulkarni (2-23) in the first over.
Dhawan, who hit three boundaries and one six in his innings of 38 off 34 balls, was dropped on 11 by James Faulkner (3-0-27-0) off his own bowling. Faulkner had an innings to forget as the left-arm seamer also dropped Warner off the bowling of Pravin Tembe (0-23).
Warner, who had 32 at the time, was not able to add to his score as the Australian opening batsman faced 35 balls and was unusually quiet with only one boundary. Rajat Bhatia bowled beautifully and started the slide when he removed Dhawan and Warner in successive overs. Dhawan was caught by Richardson on the square-leg boundary and Warner was caught at mid-wicket, trying to pull a slower ball from the right-arm medium-fast bowler. Despite the batting-friendly conditions, the Sunrisers were only able to score six boundaries and two sixes.