Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad - Match 40

Right then! We have had yet another great game in the Indian T20 League. Hyderabad were on the money right from the get-go and the batting duo of Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar ensure that they end the night sitting fifth on the points table. Rajasthan, on the other hand, have some work to do if they are to make the playoffs this year. Their chances do look slim but they will look to bounce back in their next encounter. The action continues on Friday, 23rd October, 2020 as Chennai lock horns against Mumbai in Sharjah. That game begins at 1800 local (1400 GMT). It promises to be a cracker of a contest and we hope to see you for that one. Until then, goodbye! 

For his brilliant aggressive batting, Manish Pandey is named the Man of the Match. Pandey says that there was a lot of talk about the middle order and it was time to perform. Says he had a word with VVS Laxman and he was just looking to score his runs and clear his mind. Tells Warner and Bairstow are great batsmen and tonight they had the opportunity to prove themselves and is happy to stand here. Tells he was happy to see the back of Archer and they showed their mettle today. Manish says that the first ball that he middled, he thought that if he kept his shape on and continued it, then they would win. On Shankar, he says he was long due and today he stepped up and he is really happy for Shankar.

Hyderabad skipper, David Warner, says that it started off with the toss. Feels the way they started was fantastic and credits his bowlers for pulling things back after the Powerplay and tells this is the perfect game they were asking for. Warner says that he was frustrated as a batter. He says that you try your hardest to hit the middle of the bat and get through the first over but that did not happen. Warner tells that Smith could have either put him on or gone with the strength of his bowlers. Tells dew started to come in and the batters started to take advantage. Says it was unfortunate Kane Williamson did not play but Holder is a quality player and did well using his height. Says there has always been questions about their middle order but feels they have not had much to bat and congratulates Pandey and Shankar for their effort. Warner says that they are a better defending team and his decision tonight was based on the last few games. Tells they need to back themselves in both ways.

Vijay Shankar says that he has been bowling pretty well but says he does not know when he will get to bowl. He just stays ready to bowl whenever called upon. Tells that he is just trying to take the pace off on such wickets and feels that there is something onto the wicket and thinks cross-seam and taking pace off is key. Tells that they wanted to take the game deep and says they were aware Archer was going to come hard at them and it was a challenge. Tells he thought of this as a do-or-die game as he has not batted well and today was his chance to bat up the order. Shankar says it was important to take the game deep. Adds that he asked Pandey if he wanted him to take the charge as he did not want Manish to take all the pressure and get out playing a bad shot. Adds the chat with him out in the middle was a good one.

Rajasthan skipper, Steven Smith says that they started off well as Archer got two wickets early. Tells that after that they could not do anything and feels the pitch got easier to bat on. Credits Shankar for his innings and Pandey for taking the attack to them. Says in hindsight, he would have given Archer the third over. Tells there is no easy bait in this tournament and rues the fact that they have been unable to get back to back wins. Says they need to keep winning and is unsure about the mathematical qualification.

Earlier in the day, Rajasthan started off with the bat. They posted a decent total on the board. None of the batters took responsibility to add runs on the board. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and that did not help their cause. Jason Holder was the bowler who was amazing with the ball as he scalped up three wickets. The bowlers of Rajasthan needed to fire but they could not and then it was the duo of Pandey and Shankar who took their side home. 

Rajasthan got the start that they needed courtesy of their gun bowler Jofra Archer. He got rid of the explosive Warner and then followed it up by getting rid of Bairstow as well. After that, it was all Hyderabad. The bowling tonight by Rajasthan was poor after that and they did not claw back into the game. This was a low total and they needed to bowl well to defend this, but that did not happen tonight. Only Archer was good on the night.

Hyderabad got off to a bad start with the bat chasing. They lost their big guns, Warner and Bairstow, right in the Powerplay. It was Warner's Arch-nemisis Archer who got rid of him and it was Bairstow's countrymate who got the better of him. It was the duo of Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar who then steered the ship and did well to steady the innings. Manish Pandey was attacking right from the get-go. Shankar was more slower in his approach and did well to rotate the strike. Shankar later turned it on towards the end. These two added 140 runs for the third wicket and made sure that Hyderabad ended the night with 2 more points in their kitty.

Well, this total has been chased down in the end with some ease by Hyderabad. They started off on the back foot as they lost Warner and Bairstow in the Powerplay. But it was the Indian duo of Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar who stitched a good partnership of 140 runs. Manish scored 83 and Vijay Shankar scored a half-century in the process and they chase it down with 11 balls remaining. This is also the first victory by Hyderabad in a game where they are chasing in this year's tournament. This will boost their confidence going forward.

Ben Stokes is back on. 1-0-13-0 are his figures so far. 

Kartik Tyagi is back into the attack for Rajasthan. 2-0-29-0 for him so far. He has been expensive so far.

DRINKS! Hyderabad have made small work of the chase by the looks of it. They just require 24 runs in the last 24 balls. It is all due to the partnership of Pandey and Shankar. Rajasthan, on the other hand, will need to pull off a miracle if they are to win this one. They need to remove one of these two batters and only then do they have a chance.

Jofra Archer is back into the attack to bowl the last over of his spell. Can he provide a breakthrough?

Shreyas Gopal is back on.

Rajasthan meet Hyderabad in match 40 of the Indian T20 League in Dubai. Ideally, both teams should have been on the same number of wins but Hyderabad managed to lose a game from a winning position against Kolkata. Rajasthan would be pumped up, especially after thumping Chennai and the return to form of Buttler. But is the middle order his rightful position? One wouldn't feel so. Stokes and Buttler would be better off swapping their batting positions. Hyderabad would be sweating on the fitness of Williamson but they have a ready replacement in Nabi. The last time these two teams met, it was a day game in Dubai itself, where Rajasthan snatched victory from defeat. Crucially, Tewatia showed that Rashid could be attacked and will aim to do so again. Hyderabad will be looking to exact revenge and also get 2 important points.

Rajasthan Royals Team Squad -Aniruddha Joshi,David Miller,Manan Vohra,Riyan Parag,Robin Uthappa,Steven Smith,Yashasvi Jaiswal,Ben Stokes,Mahipal Lomror,Rahul Tewatia,Shashank Singh,Tom Curran,Anuj Rawat,Jos Buttler,Sanju Samson,Akash Singh,Andrew Tye,Ankit Rajpoot,Jaydev Unadkat,Jofra Archer,Kartik Tyagi,Mayank Markande,Oshane Thomas,Shreyas Gopal,Varun Aaron

Sunrisers Hyderabad Team Squad -Bavanaka Sandeep,David Warner,Kane Williamson,Manish Pandey,Priyam Garg,Virat Singh,Abdul Samad,Abhishek Sharma,Fabian Allen,Jason Holder,Mohammad Nabi,Sanjay Yadav,Vijay Shankar,Jonny Bairstow,Shreevats Goswami,Wriddhiman Saha,Basil Thampi,Billy Stanlake,Khaleel Ahmed,Prithvi Raj,Rashid Khan,Sandeep Sharma,Shahbaz Nadeem,Siddarth Kaul,T Natarajan