HYDERABAD, APRIL 2
Rajasthan Royals showed plenty of batting muscle at the top of the order while Yuzvendra Chahal grabbed 4-17 in a resounding 72-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening Indian Premier game on Sunday.
Jos Buttler plundered 54 off 22 balls inside the batting powerplay while his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal (54) and captain Sanju Samson (55) also scored heavily to contribute to Rajasthan's strong total of 203-5.
Hyderabad finished on a disappointing 131-8 after Trent Boult (2-21) dismantled the home team's batting by claiming two wickets in his first over before conceding a run and Chahal later ran through the middle-order, claiming the key wickets of Harry Brook (13) and Mayank Agarwal (27).
Chahal raised his wicket tally in the IPL to 170 – joint second most with Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga – when he had Adil Rashid stumped and then clean bowled Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a perfect googly.
"We knew 200 was a good score on this wicket," Chahal said. "My plan was to vary my pace and bowl stump to stump. It is always my strength. I am doing nothing new and I am just backing my strengths."
Hyderabad was in danger of getting bowled out for less than 100 before Abdul Samad remained unbeaten on run-a-ball 32 and Umran Malik played a cameo of 19 not out with two sixes and a boundary.
Earlier, Buttler smacked seven boundaries and three sixes in a whirlwind half century inside the first six overs before he played onto Afghan fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi as Rajasthan stormed to 122-1 in the first half of their batting innings.
Hyderabad bounced back despite Jaiswal and Samson cracking fine half-centuries with fast bowler Thangarasu Natarajan (2-23) stemming the flow of runs and Farooqi also making good in his return spell to finish with 2-41.
Farooqi broke the half-century stand between Jaiswal and Samson when he had the former caught at deep square leg and Natarajan deceived Samson with a slower delivery that had him caught at deep square leg in the penultimate over as Hyderabad conceded 81 runs in the last 10 overs.
"It is the first match of the season and there is a lot to improve," Hyderabad skipper Kumar said after the fast bowler conceded 36 runs in his three overs against Buttler's onslaught. "We need to execute our plans and hopefully we will get better."
