Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar played unbeaten knocks of 83 and 52 respectively as SunRisers Hyderabad defeated Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday. With this win, SunRisers Hyderabad has moved to fifth place in the points table with eight points while Rajasthan Royals has gone down to seventh place with eight points.
Chasing 155, SunRisers Hyderabad got off to the worst start possible as the side lost skipper David Warner (4) in the very first over. Warner was dismissed by Jofra Archer as he had him caught at the hands of Ben Stokes.
In his second over, Archer cleanbowled Jonny Bairstow (10) and as a result, SunRisers Hyderabad was reduced to 16/2 in the third over. However, Manish Pandey played a counter-attacking inning in the powerplay and as a result, SunRisers were poised well at 58/2 after six overs.
Manish Pandey (83*) found support in Vijay Shankar (52*) at the other end, and both batsmen scored runs at a brisk pace for SunRisers. Both batsmen put on an unbeaten partnership of 140 runs for the third wicket, taking their side over the line by eight wickets with 11 balls to spare. Earlier, Jason Holder’s three-wicket haul helped SunRisers Hyderabad restrict Rajasthan Royals to 154/6 in the allotted twenty overs.
Sent into bat first, Rajasthan Royals got off to a bad start as the side lost its opener Robin Uthappa (19) in the fourth over of the innings via a run-out. However, Ben Stokes found support in Sanju Samson and the duo retrieved the innings for the Royals. Both Samson and Stokes put on 56 runs for the second wicket, but their partnership witnessed a mediocre strike rate as Stokes found it difficult to time the ball.
SunRisers Hyderabad then came back into the match as the side got back-to-back breakthroughs of Samson (36) and Stokes (30), reducing Royals to 86/3. Samson was dismissed by Jason Holder while Stokes was sent back to the pavilion by Ben Stokes. Rajasthan Royals was given a big blow in the 16th over as Vijay Shankar dismissed in-form batsman Jos Buttler (9).
Brief Scores: SunRisers Hyderabad 156/2 (Manish Pandey 83*, Vijay Shankar 52*, Jofra Archer 2-21) defeat Rajasthan Royals 154/6 (Sanju Samson 36, Ben Stokes 30, Jason Holder 3-33) by eight wickets.