HYDERABAD: Shikhar Dhawan (77, not out) and captain Kane Williamson (36, not out) led Sun Risers Hyderabad to an emphatic 9 wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in the fourth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday.
Royals bowlers found it impossible to defend their meagre total in an unsupportive wicket as the only Hyderabad batsman they managed to send home was opener Wridhiman Saha who scored five runs in as many balls.
Earlier, disciplined bowling helped Sunrisers Hyderabad restrict Rajasthan Royals to 125/9.
Apart from Sanju Samson (49) no other batsmen rose to the occasion and were dismissed one by one. For Hyderabad, pacer Sidharth Kaul and spinner Shakib al Hasan took two wickets each while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Billy Stanlake and Rashid Khan chipped in one wicket each.
Put in to bat, Rajasthan got off to a poor start as opener D Arcy Short (4) departed on the last ball of the the first over. But after that wicket, new batsman Sanju Samson (49) and opener Ajinkya Rahane (13) forged a crucial 46-run partnership to steady their team’s ship.
Just when things seemed good in the middle, Rahane was dismissed in the seventh over by Sidharth Kaul.
Unperturbed by the fall of skipper’s wicket, Samson played freely, smashing the bad balls. Middle-order batsmen Ben Stokes (5), Rahul Tripathi (17) failed to utilise the start and were dismissed cheaply in the process.
While trying to increase the run-rate, Samson was also dismissed. spinner Shakib Al Hasan dismissed Samson in the 14th over. Samson played 42 balls and slammed five boundaries.
Krishnappa Gowtham (0) was next to go. Kaul dismissed him in the 15th over.
Jos Buttler (6) and Shreyas Gopal (18) then joined in the middle but the latter failed and departed in the 18th over. Gopal, however, tried to pace the innings but was sent packing in the last over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
