From ecstasy to agony would be two-ball rollercoaster ride that Rajasthan Royals were on on Sunday night in Jaipur as they went from celebrating a win over Hyderabad, to losing the match and conceding two vital points.
Sanju Samson's Rajasthan thought they had won Sunday's IPL 2023 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad when Abdul Samad was caught off Sandeep Sharma on the last ball of the chase, with the crowd cheering in happiness.
However, that was before the red siren rang, as replays showed Sandeep had overstepped while bowling the final ball of the innings, giving Samad a life and Hyderabad another attempt at winning the game. On the free hit delivery, Samad stayed deep in the crease to launch a six over the bowler’s head to complete a successful chase of 215, the highest-ever chase by the franchise, and at the venue.
The four-wicket win also means Hyderabad are now in ninth place in the points table with eight points, while Rajasthan are fourth with ten points after their fifth loss in the last six matches.
Buttler Scored 95 as Rajasthan Posted 214/2
Electing to bat first, Yashasvi Jaiswal gave Rajasthan another quick start with a four on the very first ball going just over leaping mid-on and ending the opening over off Bhuvneshwar Kumar with another four thanks to fine-leg making a mess of it.
Though Jos Buttler flicked and nailed the drive for two fours, Jaiswal enthralled the crowd with a pulled six making a cracking sound off the bat and launched another six over long-on off Marco Jansen and Bhuvneshwar respectively.
T. Natarajan of Sunrisers Hyderabad takes the catch of Yashaswi Jaiswal of Rajasthan Royals during the IPL match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on the 7th May 2023
(Photo: BCCI)
The young left-handed batter had luck on his side -- edges landing short of fine leg and missing the stumps. Jaiswal got a top-edge going for four off Jansen and hammered a drive through backward point for another boundary, before guiding a short ball straight to short third man. Samson began with a late cut off T. Natarajan and cut off Mayank Markande for two fours, before smacking the latter for back-to-back sixes down the ground and extra cover. Buttler ended the 21-run over by pulling over mid-wicket for a flat six, before muscling a six and four down the ground off Abhishek Sharma.
Buttler then placed a drive through long-off against debutant Vivrant Sharma, followed by flicking off Jansen to collect a brace of fours to reach his fifty in 32 balls. Buttler and Samson took a six each off Markande before the former brought out the drive and late-cut against Jansen for back-to-back fours.
Markande came for further attack when Buttler muscled a six down the ground while Samson danced down the pitch to smash another maximum. Buttler's onslaught continued when he carted Bhuvneshwar thrice through off-side for boundaries, followed by Samson getting his fifty in 33 balls. But in a bid to flick off Bhuvneshwar after shuffling across in the 19th over, Buttler was trapped plumb lbw with a low yorker on review, falling five runs short of his century.
Samson brought up Rajasthan's 200 with a ramp off a Natarajan yorker going over the keeper for four. He ended the innings with a gigantic thump over long-on for six and cutting past third man for four, as 17 runs came off the final over.
Hyderabad's Chase
Chasing 215, Hyderabad got off to a sedate start as Anmolpreet Singh and Abhishek Sharma hit eight boundaries between themselves in 5.3 overs, including a hat-trick of fours off Sandeep Sharma in the fifth over.
In a bid to break free after being beaten by Yuzvendra Chahal, Anmolpreet tried to slog-sweep a fuller delivery but holed out to deep mid-wicket in the last over of Power-play.
Against a rising required run rate, Hyderabad showed first signs of acceleration when Rahul Tripathi lofted Murugan Ashwin over long-on for six, followed by Abhishek pulling for four more, apart from sweeping Chahal for a boundary.
Abhishek got his second IPL fifty of this season in 33 balls with a one-handed swing over deep mid-wicket off Ravichandran Ashwin. But on the very next ball, he mistimed loft to short third man.
Heinrich Klaasen smashed full tosses from Murugan for two leg-side sixes, before Tripathi got to drive a full and wide ball through backward point for four in a 19-run over. After smashing Kuldip Yadav for a straight-down-the-ground four, Klaasen slog-swept Chahal for six, followed by cutting him for four more.
However, the leg-spinner had the last laugh as Klassen holed out to long-off. Tripathi continued to attack by pulling Obed McCoy for six, followed by Aiden Markram getting an edge flying over the keeper for four more. But Chahal struck again as Tripathi skyed a slog-sweep to deep mid-wicket and trapped Markram plumb lbw with a googly after beating him on reverse-sweep.
With 41 runs needed off the last two overs, Glenn Phillips launched a hat-trick of sixes off Kuldip –- lifting twice over long-off, followed by heaving high over cow corner. When the pacer bowled wide, Phillips cut him, past the short third man, for four and threatened to take the match away.
But Kuldip bounced back by having Phillips mistime a slog to the fielder running in from point. With 17 needed off the final over, Samad was dropped by short third man and followed it up with a six over long-on off Sandeep.
The senior pacer had Samad caught at long-off on the last ball of the inning, only for it to be called a no-ball as the bowler overstepped. Samad finished off the chase in style with a six launched over the bowler’s head to pull off a heist for Hyderabad.
(With inputs from IANS)
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