Jaipur: Hard-hitting opener Liam Livingstone (44, 26b, 4×4, 3×6) and Sanju Samson (48 n o, 32b, 4×4, 1×6) played brilliant knocks as they helped Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by seven wickets in a crucial IPL encounter here Saturday.
The English opener, who is playing just his second game in the tournament, set the platform along with other opener Ajinkya Rahane (39) as the dup put together 78 runs for the opening wicket. However, RR lost both the openers quickly but that didn’t deter the team’s chase as skipper Steve Smith (22) and Samson added 55 runs for the third wicket to guide the team towards victory.
Earlier, Manish Pandey (61, 36b, 9×4) hit a quick half-century before SRH witnessed a middle-order collapse to be restricted to 160/8.
Sent into bat, SRH got off to a good start even after the early dismissal of skipper Kane Williamson (13) with David Warner (37) and Pandey sharing 75 runs off just 50 balls for the second wicket before losing the plot after the halfway stage.
Nicely placed 103/1 after 12 overs, SRH lost their next seven wickets for just 44 runs before Rashid Khan (17 n o) played a short cameo towards the end to take the visitors cross the 160-run mark.
After the early dismissal of Williamson early, off the bowling off Shreyas Gopal (2/30) with a googly in the fourth over, Warner and Pandey then joined hands and played aggressively to stabilise the SRH innings.
While Pandey was the aggressor of the two, Warner played the second fiddle. Pandey reached his fifty in 27 balls but just when the partnership was looking threatening, a brilliant catch by RR skipper Steve Smith sent Warner packing.
Warner backed away a long way and tried to slap an Oshane Thomas (2/28) short delivery over extra cover but didn’t time the shot perfectly and Smith ran back and dived full length to his right to hold on to a beautiful catch.
However, Pandey continued his aggressive instinct and lofted Gopal over extra cover for an exquisite boundary. But the leg-spinner hand the last laugh as he dismissed the Karnataka batsman in the very next ball, brilliantly caught by Sanju Samson as the Tom Moody-coached side slumped to 121/3 after 15 overs.
Vijay Shankar (eight) too perished cheaply, caught by Jaydev Unadkat off Varun Aaron (2/36) in the next over as the batsman went for a big shot.
Meanwhile, wickets kept on tumbling for SRH. The next to depart was Deepak Hooda for a duck caught one-handed off his own bowling by Unadkat (2/26) in the next over. But Rashid took the onus on himself and garnered 18 runs off Aaron’s final over to take the Orange Army to a respectable total.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 160/8 (Manish Pandey 61; Jaydev Unadkat 2/26, Shreyas Gopal 2/30) lost to Rajasthan Royals 161/3 (Sanju Samson 48 n o , Liam Livingstone 44) by seven wickets.
