The Rajasthan Royals (RR) managed to keep their playoffs hopes alive in the ongoing season of the edition’s Indian Premier League (IPL). The team, under the leadership of Steve Smith, came out all guns blazing and defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by seven wickets and 5 balls to spare at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. With their sixth defeat, the Orange Army now requires to win all their remaining matches.
During the toss, the SRH skipper Kane Williamson revealed that they have made as many as three changes in the squad as Williamson, Siddharth Kaul, and Wriddhiman Saha came back in to replace, Jonny Bairstow, Yusuf Pathan, and Sandeep Sharma. On the other hand, RR also made a couple of changes as Liam Livingstone and Ashton Turner came back in the squad to replace, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes.
WATCH – Manish Pandey Got Stumped And Caught On The Same Ball
One of the few bad things for SRH in the game was the early dismissal of their skipper Williamson when he was undone by Shreya Gopal’s wrong’un in the 4th over. However, after his dismissal, David Warner and Manish Pandey continued their batting form as they added as many as 75 runs for the second wicket before the former getting out in the 13th over of Oshane Thomas owing to a mind-boggling catch by Steve Smith.
Even, Manish got out in the 15th over of Gopal, owing to the brilliance of Sanju Samson behind the stumps. After Pandey’s dismissal, SRH lost the plot completely as from 121/3 they were reduced to 147/8. However, the fifth wicket of Deepak Hooda was quite interesting as Jaydev Unadkat took a fabulous catch on his own bowling with a full-stretched dive. SRH only managed to reach the total of 160/8 in their quota of 20 overs.
WATCH – Liam Livingstone Does A Fiery Welcome Of Siddharth Kaul
During the chase, Ajinkya Rahane and Liam Livingstone gave a fiery start to RR as they amassed as many as 60 runs in the powerplay and 20 of them came in the 6th over itself of Siddharth Kaul as Livingstone smashed a couple of fours and sixes in that over. However, Livingstone was dismissed by Rashid Khan in the 10th over followed by Rahane’s dismissal in the 12th over of Shakib Al Hasan.
Then, Samson and Smith build a partnership for the fourth wicket as they added 55 runs. After Smith dismissal in the 17th over of Khaleel Ahamed, RR needed just 13 runs to win and they got over the line with 5 balls to spare.
Brief Score:
Rajasthan Royals – 161/3 in 19.1 overs (S Samson: 48*, L Livingstone: 44; R Khan: 1/30) defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad – 160/8 in 20 overs (M Pandey: 61; J Unadkat: 2/26, O Thomas: 2/28) by 7 wickets and 5 balls to spare
Here is how Twitter reacted to an easy win of Rajasthan:
#RR wins. #CSK qualifies. #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 27, 2019
Australians today:
David Warner – Streak of five consecutive fifties came to an end.
Ashton Turner – Streak of five consecutive T20 ducks came to an end.#IPL2019 #RRvSRH— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) April 27, 2019
Liam Livingstone is one of several talented young English batsmen who can’t get in the ODI squad #IPL #IPL2019 https://t.co/CM1Fv1LnHs
— Warren Tarling (@wozzajt) April 27, 2019
No Buttler, Stokes and Jofra Archer yet RR win easily by 7 wickets and push KKR to no. 7….
Sanju Samson has scored 153 runs in 2 games against SRH this season.#IPL2019 #RRvSRH pic.twitter.com/HA9uSMI9ch
— Abhijeet ♞ (@TheYorkerBall) April 27, 2019
Rahane , Buttler , Samson , Tripathi , Livingstone , prashant chopra , manan vohra.
7 openers in a team.
What was RR thinktank planning during the auction ?#IPL2019 #IPL #RRvSRH #RR
— Ankit🏏 (@CricAnkit_7) April 27, 2019
#Livingstone has played a blinder of an innings tonight! Where was he all this while? Loved his shot making with my favourite #TooYumm flavour. #GetBaked
— Hamid (@hamidshaikh4321) April 27, 2019
Looks like Livingstone snapped his fingers, halving the chances of SRH going into the play offs.
— Bollywood Gandu (@BollywoodGandu) April 27, 2019
Thanos have to pick one more stone!! @liaml4893 (Livingstone) Missed his half century with 6 runs but a brilliant knock👌🏻👌🏻 #RRvSRH @rajasthanroyals @SunRisers
— Sai Kumar (@VenkatAbhimanyu) April 27, 2019
This year Liam Livingstone played in place of Ben Stokes.
But from next year Ben Stokes will play in place of Liam Livingstone.
Liam is going to be next Superstar ………#RRvSRH— KAAL Bhairav (@KaalBhairav123) April 27, 2019
Livingstone looked pretty good there, and against Rashid of all bowers. Should be looked at as the answer to England’s T20 middle order issues.
— Kieran (@BerbaSpin) April 27, 2019
Hadn't seen Liam Livingstone bat but had heard a lot about his ability to hit a cricket ball. He got his favoured batting position today and has shown why he had that reputation.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 27, 2019
