Rajasthan Royals dominated the contest against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in match number 4 of the Indian Premier League 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, winning the match by 72 runs. Even though the Orange Army won the toss at their home ground with Bhuvneshwar Kumar leading the team in absence of Aiden Markram, their plan completely backfired as the Royals got off to a bit of a flier with the Rajasthan Royals opening pair of Jos Buttler and Yashaswi Jaiswal putting on 85 runs inside the first six overs.
Buttler departed in the sixth over but till then he had already set the foundation of a strong RR total. He departed for 54 off 22. Skipper Sanju Samson then joined Jaiswal and both of them also reached their respective half-centuries. While the left-handed Jaiswal made 54 off 37 balls, their captain made 55 from 32 deliveries. Neither of the set batters though went on to continue which allowed Hyderabad to make bit of a comeback and eventually keep the Men In Pink to 203/5 in their 20 overs with Shimron Hetmyer also chipping with 22 off 16.
T Natarajan was the pick of the bowlers for the Orange Army as he picked 2 wickets for 23 runs while Fazalhaq Farooqi (2/41) and Umran Malik (1 for 32) were the other wicket takers. The Hyderabad batters though just couldn't put up a fight and were greeted by a Trent Boult special who started off the second innings with a double-wicket maiden, getting rid of both Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi for ducks.
The other batters tried to revive the innings but didn't enough the luxury of playing too many dot balls with the mounting required run rate and started to get out trying to break the shackles and inject some momentum into the innings. Yuzvendra Chahal was the best bowler for the Royals as he returned with figures of 4 for 17 and helped his side start off the season with a dominant win.
Towards the end, Umran Malik and Abdul Samad hit some bondaries but the game had long been lost for Hyderabad.