IPL 2018: Sunrisers Defend Third Successive Low Score

Yesterday, Sunrisers won the toss and batted first. They brought in Alex Hales for Mohammad Nabi and were looking a much more balanced side now, as they were over-reliant on Dhawan and Williamson earlier. Hales was effective on debut, scoring 45, while Williamson played another well-paced captain’s knock of 63(43). Jofra Archer restricted the damage a bit, with a brilliant spell of 3/26; he now has six wickets in two games in IPL 2018.

Rajasthan were set a target of 152 and while it would be tricky, it seemed pretty gettable. They lost Rahul Tripathi for 6 early in the chase but Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson steadied the ship for the hosts, putting up a 59-run partnership. However, the down-slide began once Samson was dismissed.

RR fell from 72/1 to 78/4, and their chances of winning were also slowly slipping away. SRH did what they did best by choking the opposition in the middle overs and making batsmen struggle to complete relatively easy run chases. The required rate was around 7 throughout the game but they were ultimately left to chase 21 from the last over.

Basil Thampi finished off well for the visitors, giving away 9 runs and this 11-run victory took Sunrisers Hyderabad back to the top of the points table. Once again, it was Siddarth Kaul who proved to be unplayable with his wide array of variations; he ended with figures of 2/23. Man of the Match: Kane Williamson.

Sunrisers now have 6 wins from 8 matches and are at #1 on the IPL 2018 points table. Keep watching GutshotMagazine.com for daily IPL updates and cricket match results!