Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) legend, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the Player of the Match in his team’s narrow 1-run win in the 50th match of the IPL 2024 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at home in Hyderabad.
SRH had batted first and thanks to half-centuries by Travis Head and Nitish Reddy and a quick-fire 41* by Heinrich Klaasen, posted 201/3 in 20 overs.
In response, Bhuvneshwar removed both Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in the first over for ducks. But then Yashasvi Jaiswal (67) and Riyan Parag (77) added 134 runs for 3rd wicket. This brought RR back into the game.
But quick wickets and brilliant 16th and 19th over by captain Pat Cummins, gave SRH an outside hope of a win. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was handed the ball for the final over with 13 runs to defend.
Rovman Powell did his best and brought it down to 2 runs off the final ball. But Bhuvneshwar prevailed and dismissed Powell to give SRH a win by 1 run.
After the match, Bhuvneshwar admitted that he was nervous and clueless as he ran in to deliver the final over.
“Honestly, jab 19th over chal raha tha, mai nervous tha. Jab ball haath mei aayi, tab bhi thoughtless tha (I was nervous when the 19th over was on and thoughtless when I had the ball in hand). intention was not to take a wicket as they needed two runs, one to tie the match. Aim was to tie the game so that it goes to the Super over, which will give us a chance,” Bhuvneshwar said in an interview to IPL.
The 34-year-old pacer said sometimes good balls don't fetch you wickets and sometimes you get it off a full toss.
"Like you say in cricket sometimes you don't get wickets off good balls, while a full toss gets you one (at other times). So I think we were lucky enough to get the wicket," he added.
SRH top-scorer Nitish Reddy too was hoping that the game went to Super Over.
"It was a good match. I didn't expect Bhuvi bhai will take a wicket (off the last ball), but I was expecting a Super Over," said Nitish.
