IPL 2013: Rajasthan Royals restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to 132/7

Sunrisers Hyderabad managed just 132 for seven against the Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator on a slow surface at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Rajasthan Royals picked up wickets at regular intervals to set themselves a reachable target © IANS

By Jaideep Vaidya
 
New Delhi: May 22, 2013

Sunrisers Hyderabad managed just 132 for seven against the Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator on a slow surface at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
 
After winning the toss, Hyderabad skipper Cameron White chose to bat first on a pitch that was rather different from the one used in Tuesday’s Qualifier, where the Chennai Super Kings put on 192 on the board. White would have hoped for his team to make use of the dry surface and put on as many runs as possible, but then SRH have crossed 160 just two out of the eight times they had elected to bat first this season. On a difficult surface, passing that mark was always going to be a challenging proposition.
 
Thus, it came as no surprise when SRH lost a couple of early wickets and then crawled along at a rate slower than a run a ball. Parthiv Patel, who had provided SRH quite a few useful starts up the order, fell in the first over itself to a loose shot, before young Hanuma Vihari emulated his teammate in Vikramjeet Malik’s second over to give him his second wicket.
 
White walked in at No 4 and strolled along with Shikhar Dhawan at the other end, who wasn’t too keen on scoring quickly either. At the halfway stage, SRH were on just 48 for two, and a score of 140 looked well out of reach.

White then swung hard at Siddharth Trivedi’s fullish delivery on the pads over deep square-leg for a maximum to give some hope to the Hyderabad fans of a turnaround, but he was gone the very next ball as he holed out to Kevon Cooper at mid-off.
 
Dhawan and Darren Sammy ambled on for a while, with the West Indian going for the occasional big shots, before James Faulkner took his 11th Hyderabad victim of the tournament when Dhawan’s attempted scoop over short fine-leg went awry.

Sammy hit a couple of sixes, before getting run out to a superb flat throw from substitute Rahul Shukla in the deep. Shane Watson then got the wicket Thisara Perera in the same over — two wickets which probably cost the Sunrisers at least 15 valuable runs.

However, the Sunrisers did manage to score 55 runs in the last five overs and got themselves to a score that their esteemed bowling attack, spearheaded by the best bowler in the world, Dale Steyn, is resourceful enough to defend.
 
Brief scores:
 
Sunrisers Hyderabad 132 for 7 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 33, Cameron White 31; Vikramjeet Malik 2 for 14) vs Rajasthan Royals.
 
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