The high-profile clash between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals was seeing as the battle between Steve Smith and David Warner, who became eligible to play international cricket today. Rajasthan scored a mammoth total of 198/2 in 20 overs after winning the toss. Captain Ajinkya Rahane scored a well-paced 70 runs in 49 balls while Sanju Samson (102*) was the destructor with his second IPL ton.
In response, Hyderabad got off to a flier. Thanks to David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, who shared a match-defining 110-run partnership for the first wicket. Once Warner got out, Vijay Shankar up the ante with his blazing 35 runs in 15 balls. SRH reached to home safely by five wickets with one over to spare. Have a look what were the reasons of defeat for RR.
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Hammering in Powerplay
Rajasthan scored a mammoth total of 198 runs while batting first. It looked enough to win them their first game of the Indian Premier League 2019. But Sunrisers Hyderabad was in no mood to give up without putting on a fight. Opening batsmen of Hyderabad went after Rajasthan bowlers with the word go. Warner smashed them in all corners of the park and brought up his second successive fifty in IPL 2019 inside the first six overs. SRH scored 69 runs for no wicket in the mandatory batting powerplay.
Toothless Bowlers
Rajasthan has a star-studded batting lineup with Jos Buttler at top with Ajinkya Rahane. Steve Smith and Ben Stokes give strength to their middle-order. But it is opposite with their bowling lineup, who looks toothless at the moment. Dhawal Kulkarni and Jaydev Unadkat leaked regular boundaries and didn’t trouble any batsmen. Jofra Archer is the lone bright ray of hope for them but it was hard for him to take his team back after conceding too many runs up front.
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David ‘Dynamite’ Warner
Although Warner did not play in the previous season of the IPL, but he didn’t look rusted and started pilling on runs with his comeback in the league. Warner followed his 85 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders with match-winning 69 runs against Rajasthan. He went after the bowlers since the first over of their innings. Warner was the match-defining difference between the two sides. Rajasthan opener Ajinkya Rahane scored 70 runs in the first innings, but they came at a rather slow pace of 142 in comparison to Warner, who scored his at a strike-rate of 186 during his innings.