Rajasthan Royals again picked up a heap of wickets, after letting their rivals get off to a good start, to restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to 134 for nine at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera on Thursday.
The hosts’ slow bowlers, Rajat Bhatia and Pravin Tambe, conceded just 44 runs in their combined eight overs to put a break on the scoring in the middle overs. While Bhatia claimed 3 for 23, with his cleverly-disguised deliveries, Tambe bowled a teasing length most of the time to finish with 1 for 21. Skipper Shane Watson also picked up three wickets for 13 runs, even as Irfan Pathan remained unbeaten on a scratchy 21.
Earlier, Sunrisers captain Shikhar Dhawan missed out on a golden opportunity to get a big score under his belt following a bright start. After inside edging the first ball of the match from Kane Richardson, Dhawan appeared to be relishing the chance to play on an easy-paced pitch as he reeled off a series of sweetly-timed boundaries.
Watson, like he had done against Kolkata Knight Riders, provided the home side with the breakthrough, castling Dhawan (30 off 22) in the fourth over. He was very late to get his bat down on a fairly straight delivery from Watson, after raising 37 for the opening wicket with Aaron Finch.
Fifteen balls later, Ajinkya Rahane’s brilliance in the field shone through as the dangerous Finch was caught off a clever delivery from Rajat Bhatia. After K L Rahul and Naman Ojha were bowled by Bhatia and David Warner was stumped by Sanju Samson off Tambe, Watson sent back Moises Henriques and Karn Sharma off successive balls to stall their rivals’ progress further.
RR took the field with two changes from the last match, with Kane Richardson and Dhawal Kulkarni replacing Tim Southee and Rahul Tewatia while SRH brought in Amit Mishra and Moises Henriques and left out Darren Sammy and Ishant Sharma.