Warner, who lost his wicket four times to Archer in Australia’s summer tour of England and again in the IPL two weeks ago, lasted just four balls this time against the fiery fast bowler. He managed to hit one four in the opening over before being brilliantly caught by England all-rounder Ben Stokes in the slips off Archer. Warner walked off cursing.
“I was frustrated. You try hard to get through the first over, but with someone bowling at 150kph, you can’t do that much,” Warner said smiling after the game. “You try to hit the ball with the middle of the bat or you send it to third man. In my case I got caught,” he added, acknowledging that Archer is “world class”.
Archer quickly claimed Jonny Bairstow too and Hyderabad seemed in trouble at 16-2 in the third over as they chased Rajasthan’s 154-6. But Manish Pandey (83) and Vijay Shankar (52) put on an unbeaten 140 for the third wicket to seal an overwhelming eight-wicket win. Victory put Hyderabad into fifth — two points behind Kolkata Knight Riders — and still with a hope of one of the four playoff places with four games to play.
Rajasthan dropped to seventh with a mathematical chance but Warner’s Australian teammate Steve Smith has only three games to go and knows he needs a miracle turnround now to progress. Smith admitted that he made a mistake by not giving Archer a third over at the start Hyderabad innings. “I consulted a few other boys, it was talked about (giving Archer another over up front) but opted against it and in hindsight, after what happened, probably would’ve given him one more over. It was on my mind,” said Smith.
“We started well. Jofra taking two big wickets early but we couldn’t keep the foot on the pedal. Vijay played smart innings and Manish took the game on and played really nicely,” he added.
Smith won the toss and chose to bat but Rajasthan again failed to fire. Stokes opened and hit 30 off 32 balls, and wicketkeeper Sanju Samson made 36 off 26 balls. But even with Ryan Parag hitting a six and two fours in a 12-ball 20, Rajasthan’s 154-6 off 20 overs never seemed enough.
Brought in as replacement for the injured Kane Williamson, Jason Holder took the important wickets of Samson, Steve Smith (19) and Parag and ended the innings with figures of 3/33.
After the early departure of Warner and Bairstow, Pandey — who hit eight sixes and four fours — and Shankar never gave the Rajasthan bowlers a look in and completed the target with 11 balls to spare. Pandey said: “It was high time for us in middle order to perform. I didn’t wanted to have many thoughts, just held my shape and played shots. We lost two really good batsmen early, but this was an opportunity for me to win the game. And it was long due. Our plan was to see Archer off even if he had bowled a third.”
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals 154 for 6 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 36, Ben Stokes 30; Jason Holder 3/33) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad beat 156 for 2 in 18.1 overs (Manish Pandey 83 not out, Vijay Shankar 52 not out) by 8 wickets
