IPL 2018: Kane Williamson makes the hosts pay and other takeaways as Rajasthan Royals choke in fortress Jaipur

Ashish Peter - Senior Writer 18:13 29/04/2018
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    • Williamson's fifty proved to be the difference. Image - IPL/Twitter.

    Sunrisers Hyderabad continued their impressive run in the IPL with a thrilling victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur.

    Kane Williamson’s men were restricted to 151-7 after some excellent death bowling by the hosts. In reply, Ajinkya Rahane’s men fell 11 runs short of the total despite cruising at one stage.

    Here, we look at the key talking points from another low-scoring thriller.

    TRIPATHI DROPS ANOTHER COSTLY SITTER

    In Rajasthan’s loss to Chennai Super Kings, Rahul Tripathi had dropped Shane Watson at first slip with the Aussie yet to cross the 10-run mark. Watson would ultimately go on to smash an explosive ton to lead the Super Kings to a win.

    A mirror image of that drop was on show at Jaipur on Sunday as Tripathi dropped Sunrisers skipper Williamson at first slip once again off the bowling of Jofra Archer. The Kiwi batsman had only recently arrived to the crease after the dismissal of Shikhar Dhawan and he was surprised by the extra bounce generated by Archer. Had Tripathi grabbed onto the sitter, the visitors would have found themselves in deep trouble inside the powerplay itself.

    WILLIAMSON MAKES THE ROYALS PAY

    One just knew that Williamson’s drop was going to come back and haunt the Royals. Players of Williamson’s class do not err too often and once the Sunrisers captain had his reprieve, he made the hosts pay dearly with a flowing fifty off just 32 balls.

    Williamson took a particular liking to Jaydev Unadkat’s medium pace, hitting the bowler for three boundaries and a huge six in a single over to bring up his half century. His effortless lofted drive to hit Archer over long-on for a six was undeniably the shot of the day. The 92-run second-wicket stand with Alex Hales put the visitors in complete command and set them up for a big late assault in the death overs.

    ARCHER LEADS ROYALS COMEBACK

    Once Williamson and Hales had put together their partnership, it seemed that the Sunrisers were heading towards a massive total. It wasn’t to be though for Williamson’s men as Archer led a spirited Rajasthan comeback during the death overs.

    Only 44 runs came off the last seven overs as six Hyderabad wickets fell. Leading this mayhem was Archer with his brilliant toe-crushing yorkers and cleverly disguised slower balls. The West Indies born all-rounder bowled Shakib Al Hasan with a perfect over before sending back Yusuf Pathan and Rashid Khan.

    He was almost impossible to score boundaries off his as he finished with excellent figures of 3-26 to back up his man-of-the-match IPL debut against the Mumbai Indians in the last match.

    RAJASTHAN CHOKE AT THE DEATH

    Chasing even an underpar total of 152 was always going to be a difficult task against Sunrisers’ mighty bowling attack. Although Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson had formed a fifty plus partnership for the second wicket, the latter’s dismissal opened the floodgates.

    While Sunrisers’ bowlers had done well to reduce 102-4 at the end of the 15th over, Rajasthan were still ahead at this stage with 50 runs required from 30 balls. With skipper Rahane well set with a half-century, the Royals then proceeded to choke as they simply struggled to find the boundaries.

    Rahane and debutant Mahipal Lomror were just not able to strike big against the likes of Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma. By the time Lomror departed in the third ball of the penultimate over, the equation had changed to 27 required off nine and that proved too much for the hosts as Sunrisers scripted a third consecutive victory while defending a below-par total.

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