Mehul Bhattacharya: Rajasthan Royals cruised to a victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad by 55 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) today, thanks in great part to a brilliant century by Jos Buttler and some great bowling from Morris and Mustafizur Rahman.
The first innings saw Rajasthan Royals come out to bat, and they did fairly decently in the powerplay, where even though Jaiswal fell to Rashid Khan, they managed to pull themselves to 42/1 by the end of the first 6 overs. The seventh over from Vijay Shankar went for 18 runs, helping the Rajasthan batsmen to free their hands a little, but Hyderabad kept it economical from there, and after 10 overs were bowled, Rajasthan weren’t where they wanted to be. There wasn’t cause for worry though, as Samson and Buttler played some brilliant cricket to put them in a very good position, with the latter scoring a magnificent 124 off 64. By the end of the innings, Rajasthan had put up a massive score of 220/3 in the 20 overs.
The second innings saw Pandey and Bairstow come out to open for Hyderabad, and they got their team off to a good start in the powerplay thanks to some hard-hitting shots, putting up 57/0 after the first 6 overs. Mustafizur then came in for the seventh over, and managed to bowl Pandey out off the very first ball. Bairstow departed in the very next over thanks to a catch off Tewatia, putting Hyderabad in a precarious position. Vijay Shankar departed in the 11th over thanks to a mistimed shot, and Williamson, their newly instated captain, departed soon after. Nabi’s wicket only added to the obvious, and both Samad as well as Jadhav joined the others back in the pavilion in the 17th over. In the end, Rajasthan cruised to victory by 55 runs, as Hyderbad’s batting woes continued to plague them, with the second innings total standing at 165/8 in 20 overs.