Key points:
- Stokes’s score had snapped to 30, out of 32 balls.
- In the 12th over, Buttler had stepped in, a moment most unsuited to both his starting and finishing capacity.
- Rajasthan finished very well to get to a score of 154.
- Together, for the third wicket, they stitched together 140 unbroken runs to give Hyderabad a very comfortable win in the end.
- The first Indian centurion of the IPL scored an unbeaten 83.
When it happened, Vijay Shankar may not have known it; but the all-rounder Sunrisers Hyderabad dumping Ben Stokes in the eighth over were just going to help hold the Rajasthan Royals to a below-average total.
In the chase for the sub-par result, Shankar would go on to play a match-winning hand of 50 not out as well. But Shankar was blissfully ignorant at the moment when he dropped Stokes of how his action will stack up against his things for the better, and Hyderabad’s.
Stokes was put down at the midwicket end off Rashid Khan’s bowling, looking for his first six of not just this match, but his campaign with Rajasthan. Stokes ran two runs at this point, moving from a personal score of 17 to 19, of 20 balls.
Stokes in his innings:
Stokes’s score had snapped to 30, out of 32 balls, by the time he was dismissed, bowled by Khan early in the 13th over. These were not great numbers for a man who opened the innings of Rajasthan and, in essence, occupied the place of compatriot Jos Buttler at the top.
In the 12th over, Buttler had stepped in, a moment most unsuited to both his starting and finishing capacity. He never looked very relaxed, and soon after, he was out for a boundary-less 12-ball 9.
Rajasthan managed to score 154:
Rajasthan finished very well to get to a score of 154, provided that two of the most devastating batsmen in T20 cricket combined to score 39 runs off 44 balls.
In Dubai, that’s ten runs short of the average first innings score, but that was enough to keep the bowlers of Rajasthan interested. And there was at least Jofra Archer in the chase for a short time.
The 2 Major reasons for SRH to bowl first:
There were probably two major factors, of course, beyond the health of the Dubai pitch, why David Warner decided to try Thursday after winning the toss. One, the last six IPL games were won by the second batting team and, two; the last three Rajasthan wins came while chasing; one was against Hyderabad.
By limiting Rajasthan to a sub-par ranking, Warner would have felt vindicated by his judgment. But still, they would have to score runs. Warner tapped Archer over the head of the first slip for a boundary, the third ball of the chase.
He wasn’t so good off the fourth ball, as Warner’s edge brought the second slip to a diving Stokes.
When Archer expelled Jonny Bairstow’s middle-stump with the 150kph strike, the Hyderabad camp simultaneously felt the jitters. But Manish Pandey walked in to soothe frayed nerves.
Pandey went for Rajasthan’s jugular, along with Shankar, who played anchor to perfection. Before two sixes from a Stokes over sent his form into overdrive, two cover-driven boundaries off Kartik Tyagi’s pace got him going.
An easy win to Hyderabad:
Together, for the third wicket, they stitched together 140 unbroken runs to give Hyderabad a very comfortable win in the end. Three of the most beautiful lofted borders in the 16th over, Shankar’s late attack on Arche possibly denied Pandey a much-deserved century.
The first Indian centurion of the IPL scored an unbeaten 83, running out of chase-runs to become the new Indian centurion of the IPL. Pandey also has Shankar’s drop from earlier in the evening to credit for that too.
