IPL 2021: Match 40, SRH vs RR – Who Said What

It happened finally. A Sunrisers Hyderabad win. They comprehensively defeated Rajasthan Royals in Dubai by seven wickets to break a prolonged rut of losses as another great batting display from Sanju Samson went in vain.

With the kind of form SRH has shown in the season, words “comprehensive” and “win” might not be easily associable, but on Monday, the Men in Orange managed to tick nearly all the boxes they have failed ticking this season.

Batting first, Rajasthan once again found their batting unit not striking in unison, with the individual brilliance of Sanju Samson, who got 82 off 57, including seven fours and three sixes, taking them to a competitive total. Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck early to remove Evin Lewis for 6 before Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal (36 off 23) utilized the field restrictions aggressively.

The 56-run second-wicket stand was broken with Jaiswal being cleaned up by Sandeep Sharma. Mahipal Lomror got runs too, scoring 29 off 28, but with Samson up and running by the time he arrived meant he took the backseat in the duo’s 85-run stand for the fourth wicket. Things changed from there, with Hyderabad bowlers tightening their grip around their opponents. Royals could not hit even a single boundary in the last 17 balls, with Sidharth Kaul striking twice in the ultimate over, removing Samson and Parag to restrict them to 164/5.

In response, Hyderabad, with their new-look opening pair in absence of David Warner, flew off the blocks quickly, as Jason Roy took the bowlers from the onset. By the end of the powerplay, the aggressive cricket upfront had meant SRH had already ticked off 63 runs at the loss of Wriddhiman Saha, who perished to Lomror for 18 off 11 in the last powerplay over.

The wicket did not bother SRH much, with Kane Williamson, who stood unbeaten 51 off 41, joining an on-song Roy, who smashed a 42-ball 60 before edging Chetan Sakariya behind. Mustafizur Rahman then struck to remove Priyam Garg for a golden duck to shake a few nerves, although youngster Abhishek Sharma ensured to take his team across the line, staying unbeaten on 21 alongside Williamson.

Losing skipper Sanju Samson:

I think it was a decent score. The wicket was a bit sticky, they were bowling well. We could have got 10-20 runs more. On a sticky wicket once you get a start you need to keep on going. I wanted to keep going after the powerplay but we kept losing wickets, so I wanted to stick on and have a partnership. We wanted to put on a respectable total to fight back. But we got what we had targetted after the timeout. We need to work on bowling and batting. We need to be at our best every ball and execute well. We needed to lift our standards.

Winning skipper Kane Williamson:

It’s a good feeling, some real clarity in roles as well and it’s nice to be back to winning ways. There were a couple of periods of play that were quite significant and we closed nicely with the ball and to get off the start with the bat like that and it was never easy, had to weather some storms with the ball holding up. It’s nice to finish with a win. Any team he comes in he (Roy) brings that, did what he does take the game and it’s nice to see him do well. Nice contribution for him. A couple of days now between games, important for us to recover and we have to adapt and make some adjustments. Always a tough team to beat and for us it’s about to worry about our game and play with that smile on the face.

Player of the Match Jason Roy:

Makes me extremely happy. Really thankful and grateful for Sunrisers for the opportunity. I’m extremely happy and even more so because we got over the line. He (Saha) was instrumental in that partnership, allowed me to relax a little bit and really happy with that. We obviously had a tough tournament, but to come out and play like that with a smile on the face, we gotta keep our feet grounded and keep doing the right things.