Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) has finally managed to stay in contention of reaching the playoffs in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) with a comprehensive victory over the Rajasthan Royals (RR). Manish Pandey seems to have found his form back in time as he came out all guns blazing over the Rajasthan bowlers and there was no looking back in the chase since then. However, a lot of credit for the win should also go to SRH bowlers who restricted the Royals to a total which was easily chaseable. 

After being asked to bat first, RR suffered a blow owing to a miscommunication between Ben Stokes and Robin Uthappa with the latter losing his wicket to the direct hit of Jason Holder. Stokes then added 56 runs for the second wicket along with Sanju Samson, but their [partnership wasn;t fruitful enough as it lacked the run-rate and eventually, both of them perished at the score reading 86 and this is where the Royals lost the momentum in the innings.

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Jos Buttler and Steve Smith kept on rotating the strike consistently, however, the former was looking uncomfortable and in an attempt to up the ante, Smith also perished. Despite playing his first game, Jason Holder managed to scalp three wickets after conceding just 33 runs. Riyan Parag and Jofra Archer played a few shots but only managed to help their team to reach a total of 154 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 overs.

Chasing 155, SRH lost their skipper, David Warner in the first over itself owing to a brilliant bowling display by Jofra Archer as he also managed to scalp Jonny Bairstow in his second over itself leaving SRH struggling at 16/2 in the third over. But little did they know that Manish Pandey was going for an all-out attack.

Pandey decided to take on the likes of Kartik Tyagi and Ben Stokes to gain confidence and didn’t look back since then. At the other end, Vijay Shankar played the second fiddle as he scored only 10 runs off 18 balls but didn’t throw away his wicket. Rather he then launched an all-out attack on Archer in the final over of this spell.

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The duo of Shankar and Pandey made an unbeaten partnership of 140 for the third wicket and stunned the opposition as they finished the chase in just 18.1 overs. While the latter, won the man of the match award for his tally of 83 off just 47 balls with four fours and eight sixes, Shankar remained unbeaten at 52 off 51 with six fours to his name as SRH stay alive in the tournament, and now they have climbed to the fifth position in the points table.

Hits

Manish Pandey

After the early dismissals of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey shouldered the responsibility of the chase as he decided to take on the likes of Kartik Tyagi and Ben Stokes to gain confidence. He won the man of the match award for his tally of 83 off just 47 balls with four fours and eight sixes.

Vijay Shankar

In the first innings, Vijay Shankar managed to scalp a crucial wicket of Jos Buttler. During the chase, he played the second fiddle as he scored only 10 runs off 18 balls but didn’t throw away his wicket. Rather he then launched an all-out attack on Archer in the final over of this spell and scored his first fifty of the season as well.

Flops

Jos Buttler

It’s been the second consecutive game when Jos Buttler has failed to deliver when the team needed him. Apart from his fifty against CSK, he has been a disappointment for SRH.

Kartik Tyagi

After bowling match-winning spells against RCB and DC, Kartik Tyagi has failed to take wickets for RR. In order to Royals have a chance to reach the playoffs, Tyagi needs to be more consistent.