Jaipur: Rajastha Royals got the better of Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to keep their chances alive in 2019 Indian Premier League, at their home match, here on Saturday. Rajasthan have not only kept their chances alive, they’ve ensured that CSK are the first team guaranteed a play-off spot in this edition of the IPL. No combination of results can have four teams above CSK now, so they maintain their 100% record of making it to the play-offs. This was a clinical performance by Royals. They kept their heads when Manish Pandey was smashing it to all parts and came back superbly in the second half of the Sunrisers innings. Then Livingstone gave the chase the rocket it needed at the start, and Samson showed great composure to finish it off.
Manish Pandey hit a quick half-century before Sunrisers Hyderebad witnessed a middle-order collapse to be restricted to 160 for eight. Sent into bat, Sunrisers got off too a good start even after the early dismissal of skipper Kane Williamson (13) with David Warner and Manish Pandey sharing 75 runs off just 50 balls for the second wicket before losing the plot after the halfway stage. Nicely placed 103 for one after 12 overs, Sunrisers lost their next seven wickets for just 44 runs before Rashid Khan (17 not out off 8) played a short cameo towards the end to take the visitors to the 160-run mark.
Sunrisers lost Williamson early, cleaned up by Shreyas Gopal (2-30) with a googly in the fourth over.
Warner and Pandey then joined hands and played aggressively to stabilise the Sunrisers innings. While Pandey was the aggressor of the two, Warner played the second fiddle. Pandey reached his fifty in 27 balls with the help of eight fours but just when the partnership was looking threatening, a brilliant catch by Rajasthan skipper Steve Smith sent Warner packing.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad Innings 160-8 (M Pandey 61, D Warner 37; Varu Aaron 2-36, Oshane Thomas 2-28, Shreyas Gopal 2-30, Jaydev Unadkat 2-26) lost to Rajasthan Royals: 161-three in 19.1 overs (Sanju Samson 48 not out, Liam Livingstone 44; SA Hasan 1/26)
