Rajasthan Royals produced a disciplined bowling display to restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to 133 for 6 in their Indian Premier League match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here today.
Rajat Bhatia (2/22), Dhawal Kulkarni (2/23), Kane Richarson (2/25) and Pravin Tambe (0/23) bowled brilliantly to suffocate the Hyderabad batsmen after skipper Shane Watson won the toss and elected to bowl.
Shikhar Dhawan (38) and David Warner (32) shared a 77-run stand off 64 balls to set the foundation for Hyderabad but they left the job half done as Hyderabad failed to accelarate in the second half of their innings.
Also Read
The Sunrisers lost their first wicket in opener Aaron Finch when he failed to failed to connect with a short and wide delivery from Kulkarni and ended up hitting it straight to Richardson at cover.
However, skipper Dhawan and Warner made sure there were no more hiccups as Hyderabad piled up 41 runs in the Powerplay overs. The duo were in no hurry as Hyderabad reached the first 50 runs in 8 overs.
Dhawan smashed the first six of the Hyderabad innings in the ninth over when he went down on his knees and smacked Tambe over the deep midwicket area.
However, Bhatia struck in his second over with his off-cutter as Dhawan looking for another slog sweep was holed out by Richardson at deep square leg as Hyderabad slipped to 77 for two in 11.3 overs.
Bhatia came back to dismiss Warner too in his next over as Hyderabad further slumped to 82-3. Looking to accelarate, Warner found Richarson in the deep midwicket.
Young Lokesh Rahul then blasted a four and a six in his 18-ball 20 to help Hyderabad cross the 100-run mark in 17th over.
But five balls later, Rahul hit a full toss delivery from Kulkarni to Ajinkya Rahane in the deep midwicket.
No. 6 batsman Y Venugopal Rao scored 16 off 12 balls to provide some momentum but Darren Sammy (6) and Karn Sharma (4) perished quickly as Hyderabad could score only 64 in last 10 overs.
