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Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered a late scare but were able to pull through and secure a victory over the Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday, May 7, courtesy of some brilliant batting by their openers and then the prowess of their death-over batters Adbul Samad and Glenn Phillips.
Chasing a massive total of 215 for the win was already a tough task for SRH, but Abhishek Sharma (55) and Rahul Tripathi (47) took them very close to the total. However, they did not get enough support from the other batters except Glenn Phillips, who gave his team a close chance in the final overs before he lost his wicket in the penultimate over of the match.
With 41 runs needed for the win in the final two overs of the match, many believed that it was the end of the match. Phillips turned the game on its head with 22 runs off Obed McCoy's bowling before he lost his wicket.
With 17 runs needed to be defended in the final over, the ball was given to Sandeep Sharma, who had earlier defended much smaller scores. He came close to doing what was needed but conceded a no-ball in the final ball of the match to take hope from his team.
In the end, Abdul Samad's six off the last ball, which was a free hit, gave his team two points after what was a brilliant comeback performance.
Earlier, it was the batting of Jos Buttler and skipper Sanju Samson who hit the ball out of the park with some incredible power-hitting.
It started with an exceptional 54-run opening stand between Yashasvi Jaiswal (35) and Buttler, after which Buttler (95 off 59 balls) stitched a 138-run partnership with Samson (66 not out) in 13.3 overs to steer the Royals to a big total after opting to bat first.
Buttler came close to equalling the record for the most centuries in the IPL but then fell five runs short in the penultimate over with Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting his scalp after a review. He hit 10 fours and four sixes during his innings.
Meanwhile, Samson’s 38-ball unbeaten knock was studded with four boundaries and five sixes. He looked to hit Mayank Markande as he struck three towering sixes off the hapless bowler in the ninth over which yielded 21 runs.
Buttler, who was relatively quiet in the early part of his innings, began to open up his arms after settling down nicely.
The Buttler-Samson duo kept the run-rate above 10 run an over all the time, reaching 150 in the 15th over as the SRH bowlers became increasingly clueless on how to break the partnership.
The Royals duo kept on getting the sixes every over as they launched onto the SRH bowlers after laying a strong foundation. The Royals added 60 runs off the last five overs.
Samson struck two more sixes off Markande in the 16th over and then reached his third fifty in the 18th over off 33 balls.
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