A heroic innings from Rahul Tewatia (45 runs off 28 balls) and a steady yet gritty knock from his partner Riyan Parag (42 runs off 26 balls)turned the run chase on its head as the duo powered Rajasthan Royals to a five wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday. In the death overs, Rahul Tewatia scored back-to-back boundaries with Riyan Parag hitting the winning six to power RR to a remarkable win against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Chasing 159 to win, Rajasthan Royals surprised everyone with their decision to send in their best right at the start as Ben Stokes has come out to open the batting with his England teammate Jos Buttler. For SRH, Sandeep Sharma started the proceedings for with the new ball.
However, Stokes was unlucky in his first game of the season. The English national hero looked to hit a good length delivery off Khaleel Ahmed over mid-wicket for a biggie but could only manages to play the ball back onto his stumps. Stokes ended up getting an inside edge on his stumps to give Khaleel his first wicket of the day.
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Another disastrous result for the Royals came up after departure of their in-from skipper Steven Smith for just 5 runs off 6 balls. A miscommunication between Bairstow and Buttler and fiery throw from fielder Vijay Shankar towards the bowler's end departed Smith who was well short of the crease.
Rajasthan's start went from bad to worse as Buttler (16) edged a back of a length ball to the wicket-keeper, Bairstow who was surely not going to miss such a simple catch behind the stumps. Khaleel Ahmed picked two big wickets as Royals managed to get 36/3 at the end of the powerplay.
Fifty came up Royals in 7.4 overs. Veteran batsman Robin Uthappa continued with his poor show in the IPL as Rashid Khan in his second over bowled a brilliant googly to trap him in front of the stumps to get him LBW out for 18 runs of 15 balls, right after the strategic break.
Rashid Khan picked another wicket by getting a faint outside edge off well-set Sanju Samson's bat and Jonny Bairstow yet again taking a good catch behind the stumps. With both new batters Rahul Tewatia and Riyan Parag on the crease, RR were now in trouble with the required run-rate over 10 runs per over after 13 overs.
In the death overs, Rahul Tewatia scored back-to-back boundaries with Riyan Parag hitting the winning six to power RR to 5 wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad.