Cricket Highlights, 03 April: IPL 2023 (Match 4) – Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals (Match 4) – Highlights

Sunrisers Hyderabad couldn’t produce any competition from the beginning going down to bat for a huge target of 204 runs. The team scored only 52 runs losing 6 wickets in 11 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s team was knocked out of the fight there. And with that, Rajasthan Royals started the 16th season of IPL with a big win.  

Batting first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, the Royals collected a big score of 203 runs. In response, the Sunrisers’ innings stopped at 131 runs. As a result, Sanju Samson’s team left the field with a huge victory of 72 runs.

After losing the toss, three batsmen from the top order laid the foundation for the Royals’ big total. The Royals scored 85 runs in 6 overs of the power play with the devastating batting of the two openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal.  

Buttler picked up his half-century off just 20 balls. His fastest half-century in IPL was off 18 balls, against Delhi in 2018. However, Buttler could not boost the innings more after fifty. After playing a devastating inning of 54 runs off 22 balls hitting 7 fours and 3 sixes, he was bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi and returned to the pavilion. 

However, the team’s scoring rate did not decrease. Captain Sanju Samson made a partnership of 54 runs with Jaiswal. Jaiswal returned to the dressing room scoring 54 runs off 37 balls with the help of 9 boundaries. After that, the Royals lost several wickets at regular intervals along with the decrease in the run rate. 

Devdutt Padikkal (2) and Riyan Parag (7) could not even touch double-digit figures. Sanju Samson, who came down to the crease in one-down, played an inning of 55 runs off 32 balls and was dismissed by T Natarajan. His innings were played with 3 fours and 4 sixes.  In the end, Shimron Hetmyer remained unbeaten with 22 runs from 16 balls with 1 four and 1 six. As a result, the Royals got a huge collection of 203 runs after losing 5 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs.  

T Natarajan and Fazalhaq Farooqi took the maximum number of 2 wickets each for the Sunrisers. Also, Umran Malik picked up 1 wicket. In the match, the Sunrisers could not create a chance to win even once in the run chase. Aiming to score more than ten runs per over, they faced Trent Boult’s bowling cannon at the start. The New Zealand left-arm pacer took the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi alongside bowling a maiden in the first over. 

Yuzvendra Chahal squeezed Hyderabad’s batting line-up further after Boult’s fiery spell. The 32-year-old leg spinner took the wickets of Harry Brook (13) and Mayank Agarwal (27).  Losing 6 wickets for just 52 runs, Sunrisers still managed to pass a hundred thanks to impact player Abdul Samad’s 32 off 32 balls and Umran Malik’s 19 off 8 balls innings.  

Yuzvendra Chahal scalped the highest number of 4 wickets with only 17 runs in 4 overs for the Royals. Besides, Trent Boult took 2 wickets and Jason Holder and Ravichandran Ashwin took 1 wicket each. Moreover, Jos Buttler was selected as the player of the match after playing a devastating inning.  

Rajasthan Royals are now at the top of the points table with a big win in the first match of the season. On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad is at the bottom of the standings with this big defeat.

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals Scoreboard

Rajasthan Royals – 203/5 (20.0)

Sunrisers Hyderabad – 131/8 (20.0)

Result – Rajasthan Royals won by 72 runs

Player of the match – Jos Buttler