The Rajasthan Royals team, who suffered a ‘mankading’ in their opening match, will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday with the intention of registering their first win in the current season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Sunrisers Hyderabad would also like to forget the defeat of KKR in their first match and return to the tournament with a win. The journey to Rajasthan started in a controversial way in the tournament. Team opener Jose Butler became the first batsman in the history of IPL to be a victim of ‘Mankadig’, when Kings XI Punjab captain R Ashwin controversially dismissed him during the match here.
Rajasthan’s team was chasing 185 for victory and Butler was playing 69 off 43 balls when Ashwin dismissed him from Mankings without warning. The match changed with the dismissal of Butler and Kings XI Punjab won the match by 14 runs.
Buttler looked in great touch as an opener, but he would expect more help from Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith and Ben Stokes in the batting department. Especially Smith, who did not play in the last season of IPL due to ball-tampering controversy. Smith himself would like to spend more time at the crease before the upcoming ODI World Cup.
Dhawal Kulkarni and spinner Krishnappa Gautam bowled brilliantly against Kings XI, but Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat took a lot of runs. Fast bowler Jofra Archer conceded just 17 runs in four overs. He looked dangerous but could not take wickets.
Like Rajasthan, the team of Sunrisers could not start their campaign as per their wish. He lost by six wickets to KKR in the first match of the season.
Sunrisers batting looked strong in the presence of David Warner but the team lost the match against KKR due to poor bowling in the final overs. Warner is in form after returning to competitive cricket after a one-year ban due to ball tampering, who scored a blistering 85 off 53 balls against KKR.
Sunrisers know that despite the presence of batsmen like captain Kane Williamson, Johnny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan, the success of the team will largely depend on Warner’s success.
The bowling unit of the Sunrisers, led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, performed well for the majority of the match on Sunday, but Andre Russell’s stormy innings in the last three overs put them away from victory.
