IPL 2020: Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 5 wickets with Parag and Tewatia charging

The 26th fixture of IPL 2020 saw Steve Smith’s Rajasthan Royals will lock horns with David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai on October 11. The day fixture of the double-header day, on Sunday, resulted in Rajasthan winning the game by 5 wickets with one ball remaining.

Before the start of this game, Rajasthan and Hyderabad both had a bittersweet IPL thus far, however, David Warner’s team did have the edge given the advantage of their winning momentum. Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, had faced defeat in all four of their matches leading to the SRH clash. Now, RR can finally have a sigh of relief with their 3rd win. SRH and RR are now placed 5th and 6th on the points table with 3 wins out of 7 games.

Having won the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad opted to bat first against Rajasthan Royals in Dubai. However, the pitch did not offer as much to the batsman as they might’ve desired. Turned out, it was a slow wicket and it showcased in the performances of Jonny Bairstow and especially David Warner, who was striking below 130, on a pitch like Dubai. On the other hand, Bairstow (16 off 19) had a bad day at the office and departed early after which Manish Pandey, and not Kane Williamson, came in at No.3. Needless to say, it was a questionable decision, given Kane is known to anchor the innings better than most.

The New Zealand captain, indeed, is an underrated batsman in the T20 format but even though he joined SRH’s innings late, after David Warner (48 off 38) departed leaving the total 96/2 at 14.4 overs. Batting in the death overs, first with Pandey (54



off 44) and then with Priyam Garg (15 off 8), Kane added 22 off 12 and remained unbeaten as Hyderabad posted a total of 158/4 at the end of 20 overs.

Chasing 159, RR captain Steve Smith presented the fans and their opponent with a surprise as he sent Ben Stokes, returning to professional cricket after a long break since he flew to Christchurch in August, to open with Jos Buttler. Both the World Cup-winning English players are sheer match winners and Ben Stokes is one across formats.

But that shocker of a move turned out to be a sweet surprise for Sunrisers as they got rid of Stokes, who could’ve been a dangerman down the order, for only 5 off 6. Wickets kept falling in quick succession as Khaleel Ahmed in full power removed Buttler from the attack after dismissing Stokes. Between those two wickets, RR lost Smith as he was run out by Vijay Shankar. At a point when they lost Sanju Samson, Rajasthan Royals’ ship was sinking at 78/5 off 12 overs.

But the 6th-wicket partnership between Riyan Parag and Rahul Tewatia went on to turn the tables in favour of Rajasthan Royals. The two picked up in the chase and anchored it while also accelerating the batting as RR at one point required 81 runs off 48 balls. From there, Parag (42* off 26) and Tewatia (45* off 28) took charge and won the game for Rajasthan by adding 85 runs in 47 deliveries. With 2 required off the last 2 deliveries, Parag launched a six against Khaleel Ahmed to seal the deal for RR. Skipper Steve Smith was indeed right when he said, ahead of the game, that all RR needed was for their batting to click.