Manish Pandey (right) runs between the wicket with SRH teammate Vijay Shankar during their match against Rajasthan Royals in Dubai on Thursday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman Manish Pandey scored a 47-ball 83 to fire his side to an eight-wicket victory against Rajasthan Royals in match 40 of IPL 2020 in Dubai on Thursday. The right-hander. along with Vijay Shankar (52 off 51), took a good measure of the RR bowlers in 155-run chase after RR openers perished early.
The match-winning knock came after Jason Holder justified his inclusion into the XI with 3/33 bowling figures to restrict RR at 154/6, who at one point were going strong with Sanju Samson (36 off 32) and Ben Stokes (30 off 32) in the middle. Shankar shone with the ball too, chipping in with 1/15 while Rashid Khan retained1/20.
Chasing the modest target, Jofra Archer made the most out of Smith’s aggressive field setting by getting David Warner caught at second slip for just 4 runs. Archer castled Jonny Bairstow (10 off 7) in the next over to leave SRH in a spot of bother 16/2.
Pandey took the pressure immediately off team’s shoulder by taking Kartik Tyagi and Ben Stokes for 42 runs in next three overs as SRH reached 58 at the end of powerplay.
He first started off his innings with two boundaries against Tyagi in the four over, followed it with two sixes in next over off Stokes to give an indication of things to come. He capped off the final over of the powerplay by taking Tyagi for 18 runs by hitting two tall sixes and a solitary boundary.
Pandey took more cautious approach after the powerplays, allowing Shankar to flex his arm as the all-rounder paced his innings aptly in the middle overs to take the match quickly out of RR's reach.
The duo chased down the target with 11 balls to spare.
Batting first, Rajasthan Royals started scoring at a brisk pace with a now familiar opening pair of Robin Uthappa and Ben Stokes.
However the partnership abruptly came to halt in the fourth over when Uthappa (19 off 13) was run out of a direct hit by Jason Holder of his own bowling with 33 runs on board.
Stokes kept the scoreboard ticking with Sanju Samson for a second-wicket 53-run stand but the run rate came down after the powerplay with Rashid Khan and Vijay Shankar being economical in the middle overs with some tidy bowling.
Sanju Samson tried to switch to an aggressive stance once pace was introduced back in the attack in the 12th over. However, the right-hander (36 off 26) threw away his wicket by exposing his stumps to Holder right after taking him to the cleaners with a six.
Stokes (30 off 32) was clean bowled in the very next over by Rashid Khan, leaving RR stuttering at 83/3.
Jos Buttler (9 off 12), Steve Smith (19 of 15) and Riyan Parag (20 off 12) all perished in quick succession in the slog overs as SRH pacers further tighten noose. While Buttler fell to Vijay Shankar in the 16th over, Holder claimed the remaining two in the 19th as RR could only manage a below par 154/6 at the end of 20 overs.
