Team Sunrisers Hyderabad continued their struggle with the bat as batting first against Rajasthan Royals they managed to score only 151/7 runs. Batting the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, SRH could not post a 160-plus score despite the excellent foundation laid by Alex Hales and Kane Williamson. Jofra Archer was the pick of the bowlers with his figures being 3/26.

Kane Williamson, SRH captain won the toss and chose to bat first. Toss winning captain choosing to bat first has been a rare phenomenon in the IPL and has happened only twice before. SRH today decided to open with Alex Hales and dropped Mohammad Nabi. RR made two changes, they dropped Shreyas Gopal and Heinrich Klaasen. Two debutants in Ish Sodhi and Mahipal Lomror wore the cap.

The start from Rajasthan was stunning as they picked up SRH’s one of the mainstays Shikhar Dhawan quickly. He was bowled by Gowtham in the third over. Williamson then joined Hales at the crease and the duo was very cautious in their stay on the crease. The foreign duo added 92 runs from 68 balls.

Hales was out for 45 as Gowtham picked up his second wicket. Williamson failed to read Sodhi’s googly which stayed low and was caught excellently by Jos Buttler. Kiwi captain asked for a review and the review went against him. The run-flow after Williamson’s dismissal became stagnant and SRH again faced the mid-innings crisis.

The introduction of Jofra Archer in the death overs further damaged the cause of SRH. Archer took three wickets in his last two overs and refused SRH to run ahead of the par total. In the last five overs, SRH managed only 31 runs and lost four wickets.

Will Hyderabad’s bowling rescue them again?