IPL 2020: Match 26 – SRH vs RR – Who Said What

The 26th match of the Indian Premier League got underway between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals in Dubai. RR walked with an attitude to make things respectable for them in this season and remained successful in their intentions. Opting to show up with bat first, SRH posted a modest 158/4 on board and lost the game by five wickets. SRH’s score came on the back of brilliant innings by skipper David Warner (48 off 38) and Manish Pandey (54 off 44).

Rahul Tewatia was named as the player of the match for his outstanding innings in the end. The cameo of Kane Williamson (22* off 12) remained significant in pushing the team towards a respectable score. Jofra Archer remained most effective from Rajasthan’s bowling unit as he conceded just 25 runs in four overs and knocked down David Warner.

Tewatia- Parag heroics take RR home

Chasing the target, RR looked in no position to get the game in their bag until heroics by Rahul Tewatia and Riyan Parag came to light. Tewatia (45* off 28) and Parag (42* off 26) gifted RR the much-needed victory during the last few overs. Rashid Khan remained economical for SRH and picked two wickets for the team.

Winning Skipper, Steve Smith Said

I thought Rahul and Riyan as a young kid showed great composure. Stokesy obviously didn’t come off tonight. Or top four didn’t fire, but today showed our depth. With Stokesy back it brings a nice balance to us. He’s been impressive, hasn’t he? Just thrives in pressure situations. You bring in his bowling and fielding to it and he’s a terrific player for us. I don’t think it was the easiest wicket and the square boundaries are quite big too. So great composure from Parag. Proud that he could come back in and score some runs straight up.

Losing skipper, David Warner said

Couldn’t get across the line there but it happensin cricket. [Holding Rashid back] We’ve done it in the past, we’ve held him back and tr and nullify some runs, but these two played exceptionally well. Tonight we probably – we didn’t misexcute, but some of the decisions at the top of the mark weren’t there. And we probably bowled the wrong ball at the time. Lots of positives coming out and we’ll take it on to the next game.

We need to work out as these wickets get tired, how to bat through the first 6 and the middle, and then assess with our bowling. [Middle-overs batting] Yeah I’ve got some power there! But I’m obviously cooked in the middle. Look obviously Samad’s one of those guys. We thought bringing in Vijay today, playing in the middle and with long boundaries we thought that Vijay would probably give a bit more with the ball.

Player of the match, Rahul Tewatia said

This was the role given to me and it was clear from a long time. I was batting well for a while and I was confident and was hitting them well when we played practice games. So it’s easy when you know your role. The wickets were falling so I just wanted to hold one end up and wait for the boundary balls.

I knew if I keep my self-belief and take it deep, I could pull it off. I told Riyan that the wicket was playing slow and the deeper we take it, the better our chances, even if we needed 50 off the last 4 because we have the shots. Riyan asked me what to do – I told him to respect the good balls and take singles, and I could take on the attack. Against Rashid I saw the opportunity to play the reverse sweep and took it. [The Khaleel incident] No big deal, we just got taken away in the heat of the moment.