An impressive batting display from top-order batters followed by Yuzvendra Chahal’s superb four-fer (4/17) lead Rajasthan Royals to a resounding 72-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the fourth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, here on Sunday.

Riding on the half-centuries from Jos Buttler, Yashaswi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson, RR posted a massive total of 203/5 on the board. In response, SRH suffered early batting collapse as they managed to score 131/8 in their 20 overs with Abdul Samad top scoring with unbeaten 32.

Chasing a big total of 204, Sunrisers got early blows as Trent Boult dismissed opener Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi for ducks. Abhishek was completely outplayed by Boult’s sizzling yorker as the ball flattened the off stump in the third ball of the innings.

A dot ball later, the Kiwi pacer struck again to remove Tripathi, who got caught at the slip by Jason Holder. But Tripathi went for a review, thinking that he had not nicked it at all. However, the replay confirmed that Tripathi had nickled the ball and he had to walk back.

Harry Brook and Mayank Agarwal cautiously took the innings forward with RR bowlers keeping a tight leash on SRH’s run-rate as the Bhuvneshwar-led side managed to score 30 for a loss of two wickets in the powerplay.

In the first over after powerplay, Yuzvendra Chahal put another dent on SRH’s batting as he cleaned up debutant Harry Brook, who tried to cut the length delivery but didn’t get any room and the ball went past the bat to crash into the stumps.

Sunrisers went into deep trouble in the ninth over when Holder removed Washington Sundar for 1. The all-rounder opted for a pull but ended up getting the toe-end of the bat and the ball went towards mid-off where Shimron Hetmyer took it safely.

In the next over, Ravichandran Ashwin too joined the party and sent Glenn Philips back to the hut with Sunrisers reeling 48 for 5 after 10 overs. Chahal struck again in the 11th over to dismiss Agarwal, who holed out to long-on for a six where Buttler completed the catch comfortably.

Though Adil Rashid went for a couple of big hits, it almost became an impossible task for the Sunrisers to pull off a win with half of their side heading back to pavilion. Meanwhile, Navdeep Saini came in as a substitute player for Yashwaswi Jaiswal.

Saini came into the attack in the 13th over, and overstepped on the third ball, and followed it up with another one as a high full-toss, which was called no-ball for height by the square leg umpire. But Sanju Samson reviewed, which is of no use as it was the right call by the umpire. Then, Adil Rashid whipped the ball away over mid-wicket and found the gap to get a boundary off the free Hit.

At the end of the 14th over, SRH lost Rashid, who went down the track but missed Chahal’s slower ball by some distance and Samson did the rest behind the stumps to leave SRH seven down.

Chahal picked up his fourth in the 18th over as he cleaned up skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who backed away for a big hit but played the wrong line and the ball shattered the stumps. Though the match was out of SRH’s hands, Umran Malik cleared his front leg and crunched it over mid-off for four and hit a massive hit off the next ball as he smeared it over deep mid-wicket for six.

Abdul Samad and Umran were in a competition of who would hit longer as the former started the final over with a maximum off Saini’s bowling. After a single, Umran smashed a huge six off the no-ball. Then, Samad collected two back-to-back boundaries and a single off the final delivery, taking 23 off the final over to end the innings as Royals picked up a huge 72-run win.

Brief scores: Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 203/5 in 20 overs (Yashaswi Jaiswal 54 off 37, Jos Buttler 54 off 22 and Sanju Samson 55 off 32; Fazalhaq Farooqi 2/41, T Natarajan 2/23) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 131/8 in 20 overs (Abdul Samad 32 off 32, Mayank Agarwal 27 off 23; Yuzvendra Chahal 4/17, Trent Boult 2/21) by 72 runs

Press Release, Source: IANS