Hello and a warm welcome to yet another blog on the daily match reviews on this year’s IPL. Today I will cover the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals at Uppal, which unexpectedly proved to be a thriller. So without any further delay, let’s get started!
Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first mainly because that is their strength. But again SRH were off to a slow start but lost only 2 wickets, much better than their previous 2 games, so Head and Nitish Reddy put up a solid partnership and the firework services were provided by Klaasen as the Sunrisers posted a formidable total of 201. RR lost Buttler and Samson in the first over but Parag and Jaiswal made it seem that nothing happened and were in cruise control. Both the set batters were dismissed but the platform was set for the other batters to finish it, but RR’s middle-order shockingly collapsed at the death and Powell played some wonderful shots and it looked like RR would be home but Bhuvneshwar held his nerve in the last over, giving the Sunrisers a memorable win by a run.
On another thrilling game at Uppal, the Sunrisers should feel they need to return to their usual ways, firing in the powerplay, which they haven’t in their last three games. But the difference in today’s game was that Head wasn’t dismissed in the powerplay and stitched up a brilliant partnership with Nitish Reddy and Klaasen returned to his usual days, smoking the ball in all directions. But the main positive for SRH was Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bowled at his vintage best in the opening over and defended just 13 runs in the final over with the dangerous Powell still on the crease. I have absolutely nothing to say about RR because they have virtually qualified and their middle order had an off day because of the brilliance of Cummins, Nattu and Bhuvi at the death, defending just 45 runs in the last 5 overs, giving SRH a very important win by a run. So overall, 2 massive partnerships by either team defined the batting, but SRH’s death bowling proved to be a huge difference as the Sunrisers jump back into the top 4 with ease…
So that’s it for today, I will next cover the game between the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders, where MI will be fighting for not getting eliminated. So I will catch you on that and see you soon!