Rajasthan Royals produced a disciplined bowling performance as they restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to 132 for seven in the ‘Eliminator’ of the Pepsi Indian Premier League here today.
All the Royals bowlers did a splendid job as Sunrisers batsmen could never really force the pace during the entire 20 overs save West Indies skipper Darren Sammy (29, 3x6) striking a few lusty blows during the fag end of the innings.
Shikhar Dhawan (33, 39 balls, 3x4) was the other significant contributor although his innings was an uncharacteristic one by his standards as the slowness of the track did not help his cause either.
While Vikramjeet Malik (2/14) provided twin breakthroughs, James Faulkner (1/28) and Siddharth Trivedi (1/18) consistently hit the right length on a track that was totally different from the one on which Chennai Super Kings batsmen ran riot in the Qualifier yesterday.
Portly Himachal Pradesh medium pacer Malik was rewarded for his wicket—to—wicket bowling as he removed Parthiv Patel (1) and Hanuma Vihari (1) off successive overs.
Parthiv closed the face of the bat to a delivery that landed on the good length spot and Sanju Samson, stationed at extra cover, ran backwards to take a tumbling catch.
In his very next over, Malik removed Vihari with a back of the length delivery which climbed on the batsman who offered a simple catch to mid—on fielder Kevon Cooper.
Two down for only three runs, it was skipper Cameron White (31, 28 balls, 5x4), who joined Dhawan as they started the damage control, adding 52 runs for the third wicket in 8.3 overs.
Dhawan, who was a spectator all this while, finally got into the act with a couple of cover driven boundaries —— one each of Faulkner and Malik.
White also played a perfect straight drive off Malik apart from a cracking a square cut. But the perennially low and slow Kotla track provided quite a challenge for ‘local boy’ Dhawan and White as the ball did not come onto the bat.
The six overs of Powerplay yielded only 27 runs.
Brief Score:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 132 for 7 in 20 overs (Cameron White 31, Shikhar Dhawan 33; Vikramjeet Malik 2/14).