Sunrisers Hyderabad 9-136 (Biplab Samantray 55, Darren Sammy 23, James Faulkner 5-16) beat Rajasthan Royals 9-113 (Kevon Cooper 26, Rahul Dravid 25, Amit Mishra 2-8, Dale Steyn 2-17) by 23 runs.

Biplab Samantray strengthened Sunrisers Hyderabad with his prominent fifty, Amit Mishra bowled well as Rajasthan Royals were unable to chase an average target.

Sunrisers Hyderabad scored 9-136 in the allocated 20 overs and Rajasthan Royals managed 9-113 in the same overs.

Amit Mishra (Sunrisers Hyderabad) was announced ‘Player of the match’ for his economical bowling spell of 4-0-8-2.

The 68^th game of the Indian Premier League was played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad.

Cameron White, the skipper of the home side won the toss and elected to bat first. They had a dismal start by losing their three front line batsmen at just 5 runs in 2.4 overs. Parthiv Patel, Shikhar Dhawan and White were gone for 2, 1, and 0 runs respectively. Hanuma Vihari and Biplab Samantray stopped the invasion of the rival bowling and the first four of the innings was recorded in the fifth over. Samantray got his second boundary two overs later as Vihari kept on crawling at his end. Hanuma Vihari handed over his wicket next at 49 after scoring 19 runs and was replaced by Darren Sammy.

The run rate was speeded up a bit by the two batsmen as they added 14 runs in the 14^th over with 1 six and 1 four and repeated that in the 16^th one as well. Sammy was caught by Brad Hodge off James Faulkner for 23 as the total touched 105 in 16.2 overs. Biplab Samantray achieved his fifty in the 18^th over and was caught at long on by Kevon Cooper off Faulkner for 55 from 46 with 1 six and 6 fours. Thisara Perera saved his wicket for 17 as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 136 runs on board with one wicket left in 20 overs.

James Faulkner was the star performer with five wickets whereas Shane Watson and Siddharth Trivedi claimed one wicket each.

Rajasthan Royals opened the innings with their captain, Rahul Dravid along with Ajinkya Rahane positively as the first hit 11 runs in the second over with 1 six and 1 four. The proceedings slowed down after that until the fifth over when the pair gathered 13 runs with another six and one four. Dravid was run out at 39 after contributing 25 runs and Rahane followed him one run later for 12. Shane Watson and Sanju Samson had no answer against the lethal bowling of the hosts and they enhanced the score to 51. Samson was caught by Dale Steyn off Amit Mishra for 5 and Shane Watson became the next victim for 11.

The middle order batting of the visitors flopped badly and the wickets kept on crumbling one after another. Kevon Cooper scored 26 off 12 balls with 1 six and 3 fours as Rajasthan Royals reached 113 for the loss of 9 wickets in the required overs.

Amit Mishra, Dale Stey, Karan Sharma and Thisara Perera were the most impressive bowlers with two wickets each.

Sunrisers Hyderabad won the encounter by a margin of 23 runs and clinched another game in the ongoing tournament.

The present standing of the two teams in the tournament is as follows:

Rajasthan Royals – 20 points from 16 games – 3^rd position.

Sunrisers Hyderabad – 18 points from 15 games – 4^th position.