No sport conjures up drama the way cricket does. The reverse fixture between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad gave the packed Sawai Mansingh Stadium a timely reminder of just that.
The game ended with Sunrisers edging Royals off the last ball, by four wickets. Chasing what was going to be its biggest ever target, 215, SRH needed 41 off the last two overs.
Glenn Phillips (25, 7b, 1x4, 3x6), playing only his second game of the season, tore into Kuldip Yadav hitting him for 6,6,6,4 before falling to a brilliant running catch in the deep by Shimron Hetmyer. Twenty four came off the over, the penultimate one of the SRH innings.
Now 17 was needed from the 20th over, which was given to Sandeep Sharma, the man who had done the job in a similar situation against Chennai Super Kings. Abdul Samad hit the second ball for a six, beating a great effort on the boundary by Joe Root, who made his IPL debut in the match.
It call came down to five runs needed off the last ball. Samad was caught at long-off, but it proved a no-ball – a big one at that – and he smashed the free-hit over the head of the bowler to take SRH to one of its greatest wins.
There were fine contributions to the remarkable chase from Anmolpreet Singh (33, 25b, 4x4, 1x6), Abhishek Sharma (55, 34b, 5x4, 2x6), Rahul Tripathi (47, 29b, 2x4, 3x6) and Heinrich Klaasen (26, 12b, 2x4, 2x6). Three of them were dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal, who came up with a splendid spell of four for 29.
Earlier, the Royals innings was built around a superb 95 off 59 balls (10x4, 4x6) from Jos Buttler, who finally returned to form. Skipper Sanju Samson (66, 38b, 4x4, 5x6) was also back amongst the runs, and they added 138 for the second wicket off just 81 balls. There was another fine knock from Yashasvi Jaiswal (35, 18b, 5x4, 2x6), too.
Not many would have imagined the imposing Royals total would be chased down in such dramatic fashion.
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