IPL 2020: Match 40 – SRH vs RR – Who Said What

Match no 40 of the Indian Premier League saw Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals locking horns with each other. SRH bagged the much-needed victory by eight wickets in Dubai. Batting first, Rajasthan posted a decent 154 on the board where all the batters just displayed an average show. Sanju Samson (36 off 26) and Ben Stokes (30 off 32) got some handful runs for the team while batting.

Manish Pandey was named as the player of the match as he became the prime figure in SRH’s convincing victory. Steve Smith and Riyan Parag walked up with their cameos to get RR going. Jason Holder stunned batsmen with his bowling as he picked three wickets in his first game of the season. Ace spinner Rashid Khan again came up with his spin magic as he conceded just 20 runs to get one-wicket.

Pandey-Shankar heroics led SRH home

Chasing the decent target, the opening stand of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow didn’t prove to be successful for the team. However, what followed next was no less than a miracle for the Orange Army. Manish Pandey (83* off 47) and Vijay Shankar (52* off 51) displayed next level class to get their team over the line. Jofra Archer remained splendid yet again as he conceded just 21 runs off his spell to knock down both Warner and Bairstow.

Losing skipper, Steve Smith said

We started well. Jofra taking two big wickets early but we couldn’t keep the foot on the pedal. Vijay played smart innings and Manish took the game on and played really nicely. I consulted a few other boys, it was talked about (giving Jofra another over up front) but opted against it and in hindsight, after what happened, probably would’ve given him one more over. It was on my mind. It (the wicket) got better as the game went on.

It was slow and stopping in the first innings, it was one of those wickets which was quite hard to start on. We needed some more runs in the first innings. I can’t put my finger on anything, there are plenty of good players and good teams. We haven’t been able to pull back to back wins. We just need to keep winning and don’t know how things will work for us mathematically, we have to keep winning, that’s our job now.

Winning Skipper, David Warner said

I think the way we started was fantastic. We were able to bring it back after the powerplay. It’s been a complete game, we have been asking for. Good to see two guys getting the reward for their hard work. I was frustrated. You try hard to get through the first over, but with someone bowling at 150ks, you can’t do much. You can take him on. We saw a lot of dew last night during training, and it came in again. Jason adds strength to our bowling, his experience, he’s an all-round package. He’s a great inclusion. We do have a middle order, there are always question on it. We haven’t lost early wickets before, so they haven’t got a chance. I have said in the past, we are a better defending team. You have to back yourself, no matter what. This cold weather and dew comes in.

Player of the match, Manish Pandey said

There were enough talks around our middle order. High time for us to perform. I just wanted to stay on the wicket and play my shots. Really happy that it came off today. We had the opportunity to win the game for SRH, really happy I’m standing here. We had plans to see Jofra off. We had a plan to take on the leggies and Indian bowlers, and it paid off. The first ball I middled through covers and I tried to keep my shape. I was hitting it well and I tried to get my team over the line. Vijay was also long due and he stepped up batting at 4. We are trying to take positives from this match and we’ll try to keep it up for the rest of the tournament.