Sunrisers Hyderabad beats Rajasthan Royals by 11 runs.
Rajasthan Royals innings 140/6 (20)
WICKET! Thampi strikes, Gowtham departs 8 (5).
WICKET! Lomror goes for 11 (12); second wicket for Kaul. Royals need 23 off 8 balls.
19:11: Rahane is slowly loosening up, smashes Rashid for a six. He has moved to 61 off 49 balls; 27 needed off 12 balls.
19:00: The game looks evenly poised now, but the advantage lies with SRH owing to its bowling attack; Royals need 48 off 28. Rahane is dealing with singles but that's not what the team needs at the moment. It needs two good overs to make it square.
18:50: Rashid Khan strikes; Buttler 10 (11) goes for the charge but the turn forces him to mistime. Lomror, the local boy, walks in.
18:44: Buttler is the new man in; he is yet to register a big score in the tournament. This is a perfect platform for him to make a point.
18:38: WICKET! Big wicket for SRH; change bowler Yusuf Pathan cleans up Ben Stokes for a duck.
18:34: WICKET! Kaul removes the dangerous Samson 40 (30); three fours and a six. Where was Samson looking? He clearly didn't see the Hales being placed there.
Kaul has been quite a star for SRH with 10 wickets (including this one) in eight games. Here's a quick review:
18:26: Skipper Rahane has moved to 20 off 18 balls; Royals need this partnership to blossom if it is to chase down the total with ease. The duo added 56 runs for the second wicket so far.
Royals need 83 runs off 66 balls.
18:15: Samson has quickly moved to 24 off 15 balls. The wicketkeeper-batsman from Kerala started the season with a well-made 49 against the same opponent. He followed it up with an unbeaten 92 against Royal Challengers Bangalore and recently, he smashed 52 against Mumbai Indians, for a winning cause.
18:13: Thampi conceded 17 runs in his first over and now, he has been replaced by Siddharth Kaul — the bandana guy, as he is being popularly known these days. SRH has earned a reputation of defending low scores; though 150 seems easy on this wicket, but you never know.
18:03: Basil Thampi introduced into the attack. He had a late entry into the playing XI but the speedster caught the headlines bagging four wickets in two games. Thampi had had an interesting preparation ahead of the tournament. Under the supervision of former Aussie quick Glenn McGrath at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, he would change deliveries at the last minute, as directed. Read here: Bowl this, bowl that, howzzat! – Thampi's mantra
18:00:WICKET! Tripathi dismissed 4 (5). His horror season continues; Sandeep Sharma pitched around good length but the right-hander misjudged the delivery coming down the pitch.
Rajasthan Royals need 152 off 120 balls to win the game. We will be back with Royals' chase shortly.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 151/7 (20)
17:27: WICKET! Finally, Unadkat gets a wicket. It was a slower one that surprised Manish Pandey 16 (15), caught by Rahane.
17:23: WICKET! Two in one over for Archer; he bowls a short one to Yusuf Pathan 2 (3) who is caught at third man. 160 looks difficult for SRH at the moment.
17:19: WICKET! Soft dismissal; Jofra Archer bowls a slower yorker to send Shakib 6 (6) back to pavillion.
17:15: It is difficult to gauge a decisive score in T20 cricket, but the rate at which SRH is progressing, the projected score could be around 160-165.
17:05: BIG WICKET! Sodhi strikes! Williamson is gone. It was a sharp googly that kept low. The skipper couldn't manage to get his bat away; brilliant take by Buttler.
16:59: WICKET! Hales goes for a delivery wide off the stump and ends up gifting a catch to Sanju Samson off Gowtham. That's the second wicket for Gowtham today.
16:52: Williamson is slowly changing gears. A fine half-century for the SRH skipper — 50 off 32 balls. Unadkat — the costliest Indian player this season (bought for Rs 11.5 crore) — is yet to prove his worth.
Unadkat in the IPL so far
16:48: Mahipal Lomror, another debutant, joins the party. Royals is playing three debutants and desperately looking for a change in the team's fortunes. Lomror is an all-rounder wh plays for Rajasthan in domestic cricket. He seems thrilled to return to his roots.
16:38: Hales is unbeaten on 30 off 27 balls (two fours), while Williamson is on 27 off 23 balls (four fours).
CHANCE! Sodhi almost got Hales. It was a googly. Hales hit it straight to deep mid-wicket but Ben Stokes signals he didn't take the catch. A good display of sportsman spirit from the Englishman.
16:28: Ajinkya Rahane brings in Ish Sodhi into the attack. The Indian-origin bowler from New Zealand is also making his IPL debut. He is currently World No 4 in the T20 bowler rankings. Take a look at Sodhi's T20 statistics.
CHANCE! Williamson survives; Rahul Tripathi drops him at first slip.
16:16: Gowtham has been in good form with the bat too. Against Mumbai Indians, his unbeaten 33 down the order won the game for Royals. Skipper Kane Williamson is out in the middle, watch out for the gaps! He has been batting like a rock in the tournament.
WICKET! Gowtham strikes, Dhawan departs for 6 (4). The ball skid off the pitch to run into Dhawan's stumps. He clearly wasn't expecting that one; poor judgement from the southpaw.
16:04: Hales is off to a start here, back-to-back boundaries for the Englishman. Fresh from the Pakistan Super League stint, Hales was never out of the T20 mode.
Hales, in an interview with Sportstar earlier, had said how he kept himself fit and ready even when he was warming the benches. Read here: Hale and hearty, Alex in wonderland!
16:01: There is a first slip in place for the SRH openers against Gowtham, which looks like an interesting move. The move got Rashid Khan and Shakib Al Hasan a couple of wickets against Mumbai Indians.
15:59: Krishnappa Gowtham set to open Rajasthan Royals' bowling attack. He has been farely successful in the PowerPlay. Alex Hales is making his debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad today.
Hello, welcome to Sportstar 's live blog of the 28th match of IPL 2018.
Rajasthan Royals hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad in a pivotal match which will mark the halfway stage in the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League. Rajasthan, placed fifth, has a chance to close the current four-point gap to two with a win, while Hyderabad, which is second with a slightly inferior net run-rate than Chennai Super Kings, will move top with a win.
Previous meeting: Hyderabad secured a nine-wicket win in the reverse fixture at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on April 9.
Toss update: Kane Williamson, the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad, has won the toss and chosen to bat first. Rajasthan has brought in Mahipal Lomror and Ish Sodhi. Alex Hales debuts for Hyderabad, replacing Mohammad Nabi.
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