Srikkanth took to Twitter to express his disappointment following SRH’s huge loss to RR.
After winning the toss, SRH chose to bowl first at Pune's Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium. The ball was wobbling around on a green track. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was hitting the right line and length, not letting Jos Buttler get off the mark.
Buttler was set up nicely by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Three outswingers, then an inswinger. Finally, the big breakthrough came on ball five, when the batter edged the ball and Abdul Samad took a brilliant catch with the keeper diving in front of him. However, much to the chagrin of the team and fans, what should have been a wicket turned out to be a free hit due to Kumar's overstepping.
Umran Malik drew an edge from Buttler, but the keeper dropped it, and once again what should have been a wicket became an extra run and a free hit. The bowler had overstepped once again. Jos Buttler added insult to injury by scoring 35 off 28 balls.
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Romario Shepherd took Jaiswal's wicket in the seventh over, giving the bowling team a breakthrough. Despite this, the Rajasthan Royals were off to a good start.
Sanju Samson batted third and scored an impressive half-century. Padikkal's tenacious 41 off 29 balls and Shimron Hetmyer's fiery 13-ball 32 helped the Royals post a mammoth total of 210/6 in 20 overs.
Chasing 211, Hyderabad was in big trouble at 9/3 in the fifth over. The batters who were dismissed were Kane Williamson (2 runs off 7 balls), Rahul Tripathi, and Nicholas Pooran, both of whom were dismissed for a duck. They needed a miracle to make a comeback and chase down the target from there.
However, the Royals made things even more difficult, and the batting team found itself at 37/5 in the 11th over. Washington Sundar entered the game at number 8 and smashed 40 off 14 balls, hitting 5 boundaries and 2 maximums. Aiden Markram added a half-century to his tally. These outstanding performances, however, could not save the team from a 61-run defeat.
Yuzvendra Chahal was the Royals' standout bowler, taking three wickets and conceding only 22 runs in four overs. Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna both took two wickets.
Following the match, former India batter Krishnamachari Srikkanth lauded Samson and his men on Twitter for putting up a clinical all-round performance.
“A great outing for Rajasthan Royals! All-around super performance and looks like a top 4 contender! Terrible for SRH, team composition, depth in all departments is lacking, early signs of a last 2 contender for them,” he tweeted.
Sunrisers Hyderabad will face Lucknow Super Giants in their next match on April 4.