Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in the Indian Premier League match here on Friday. Earlier, Sanju Samson smashed the first century and together with skipper Ajinkya Rahane stitched a century stand to guide Rajasthan Royals to a mammoth 198 for two. Samson didn’t spare a single Sunrisers’ bowler and remained unbeaten on 102 that came off just 55 balls with the help of 10 fours and four hits over the fence.
It was Samson’s second IPL ton. His first century in the T20 tournament came in 2017. Opening the batting after winning the toss, Rahane led from the front with 49-ball 70 and together with Samson shared 119 runs for the second wicket to set the base for the total after the early dismissal of Jos Buttler. Introduced into the attack in the fourth over, Rashid Khan (1/24) struck with only his second ball, cleaning up dangerman Buttler around his legs.
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Rajasthan’s decision to bat first didn’t go according to plan, at least, in the powerplay as the visitors struggled against Sunrisers’ disciplined bowling to garner just 35 runs in the first six overs. After Buttler’s dismissal, skipper Rahane was joined at the crease by Samson and the duo played cautiously without taking any undue risk to take Rajasthan forward.
While Rahane played the anchor’s role, Samson opened up his arms soon and smashed two sixes in consecutive overs of Shabaz Nadeem and Siddharth Kaul to give some momentum to Rajasthan’s innings. Rahane soon joined his junior colleague and clobbered Nadeem straight over his head as Rajasthan reached 75 for one at the halfway stage.
After a slow start, Rahane stepped on the accelerator and welcomed Vijay Shankar with six over deep square leg boundary.
Both Rahane and Samson paced their innings to perfection, as after playing cautiously initially, they broke their shackles when needed and notched up the team’s 100 in 11.5 overs.
Rahane registered his first fifty of the ongoing IPL in 38 balls while Samson brought up his half-century in 34 deliveries as the duo raised 100-run stand for the second wicket in 65 balls. Rahane finally departed in the 16th over bowled by Nadeem, holed out by Manish Pandey at long-on as he went for a big shot. He struck four boundaries and three sixes during his knock.
Rajasthan Royals
A Rahane c Pandey b Nadeem….70
J Buttler b Rashid Khan…………….05
S Samson not out…………………..102
B Stokes not out………………………16
Extras: (nb-1, w-4)…………………..05
Total: (for 2 wickets)……………….198
FoW: 1-15, 2-134
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-55-0, Sandeep Sharma 4-0-38-0, Rashid Khan 4-0-24-1, Siddharth Kaul 4-0-32-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 3-0-36-1, Vijay Shankar 1-0-13-0.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Bairstow † c Kulkarni b Gopal…..45
Williamson c Tripathi b Unadkat..14
V Shankar c P Chopra b Gopal…35
M Pandey lbw b Gopal…………….01
Y Pathan not out……………………..16
R Khan not out……………………….15
Extras: (lb-1, w-5)…………………..06
Total (Five wkts 19 overs)……..201
FoW: 1-110, 2-117, 3-164, 4-167, 5-167
Bowling: D Kulkarni 3-0-40-0, K Gowtham 2-0-25-0, J Archer 4-0-42-0, B Stokes 3-0-40-1, S Gopal 4-0-27-3, J Unadkat 3-0-26-1
