By Ross Roche.
An incredible final two overs saw the Sunrisers Hyderabad come back from the dead to clinch an incredible four-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals in their Tata Indian Premier League match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday evening.
With the Sunrisers on 174 for five after 18 overs, chasing 215, the two new batters at the crease needed a highly unlikely 41 off the last 12 balls to win the match, only for Glenn Phillips, 25 off seven balls (1×4; 3×6) and Abdul Samad, 17no off seven (2×6) to step forward.
Phillips started the carnage by smashing the first three balls of Kuldip Yadav’s 19th over for sixes, two straight down the ground and one pulled over deep midwicket, followed by an outside edge for four with 22 coming off the first four balls.
Phillips then skied the fifth ball and was caught by Shimron Hetmeyer, while a two off the last from Marco Jansen (3no) left them needing 17 to win.
An action-packed last over from Sandeep Sharma then saw Samad dropped for two off the first ball, and dropped for six off the second by a diving Joe Root on the boundary, before the Royals thought they had won it as the next three balls went for four runs, while Samad was caught off the last in the deep.
But as the Royals celebrated, the dreaded siren went signalling a no-ball, with four thus needed for the win off the last ball, and Samad duly delivered by crashing Sharma back over his head for six to send the Sunrisers bench into wild celebrations.
Earlier in the innings, the Sunrisers’ chase got off to a decent enough start as openers Abhishek Sharma, 55 off 34 balls (5×4; 2×6) and Anmolpreet Singh, 33 off 25 balls (4×4; 1×6), shared in a 51-run stand off 35 balls for the first wicket.
Singh then top-edged Yuzvendra Chahal to Shimron Hetmeyer at deep midwicket, leaving them on 52 for one at the end of the powerplay.
Rahul Tripathi, 47 off 29 (2×4; 3×6) joined Sharma at the crease and they initially steadied things before moving the score to 87 for one by the halfway stage.
Sharma reached his half-century in style in the 13th over, slog sweeping Ravichandran Ashwin for six, but off the very next delivery, he edged the ball straight to Yuzvendra Chahal at short third man to leave them on 116 for two.
Heinrich Klaasen, 26 off 12 (2×4; 2×6), was next in and along with Tripathi they shared in a quickfire stand of 41 off 19 balls as they tried to reduce the run rate required.
Klaasen then hit Chahal straight to Jos Buttler at long-off at the end of the 16th over, followed by Chahal bowling the 18th over and having Tripathi caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal on the boundary. Chahal trapped Aiden Markram (6) lbw to reduce them to 174 for five after 17.5 overs, which set up the final over heroics.
In the first innings, Buttler powered his way to a big half-century to help the Royals post a daunting 214 for two batting first.
Buttler clubbed his way to 95 off 59 balls, crunching four sixes and 10 fours in a superb innings, while also sharing in an excellent 138-run second wicket partnership off 81 balls with his captain Sanju Samson.
Samson finished the innings with a flourish, cracking 17 runs off the last over bowled by Thangarasu Natarajan, to end unbeaten on 66 off 38 balls, having hit five sixes and four fours.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, the Royals innings got off to a flying start thanks to opening batter Jaiswal, who was in a brutal mood at the top of the order.
Jaiswal tucked into every bowler over the first five overs, crashing his way to 35 off 18 balls (5×4; 2×6), before he was undone by a short slower ball from pace bowler Jansen, as he steered an easy catch to Natarajan at short third man.
The Royals were sitting pretty on 54 for one at that stage, with Samson then joining Buttler at the crease and keeping the run rate up as they cruised to 107 for one by the halfway stage.
Buttler brought up his half-century with a single in the 12th over, while the Royals picked up the scoring rate to move to 185 for one by the end of the 17th over.
Two tight overs then followed, as Natarajan only conceded five runs in the 18th, with Samson reaching his half-century with a two in the over, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded seven off the 19th, including trapping Buttler lbw with a perfect yorker.
However, Samson made sure that his side would go into the innings break with good momentum as he clubbed two fours and a six in the final over to set the Sunrisers a big total.
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (capt, wk), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Murugan Ashwin, Kuldip Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram (capt), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Glenn Phillips, Abdul Samad, Marco Jansen, Vivrant Sharma, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Thangarasu Natarajan.