The Rajasthan Royals lost to the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 36 runs on May 24th. This was at Chepauk’s M.A. Chidambaram Stadium located in Chennai. This last eighth victory during the qualifiers has confirmed their position at the playoff of the IPL 2024 season.
Pat Cummins- lead of Sunrises Hyderabad- chose to bat first after winning the toss. This decision turned out to be right one as Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head both played very well on top order. At the beginning of the game Abhishek Sharma was dismissed only for Head to remain unbeaten, scoring 47 from 40 balls. Following Head’s dismissal, a quickfire 38 from Heinrich Klaasen and a crucial cameo of 28 runs from Shahbaz Ahmed propelled SRH to a competitive total of 175/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
In reply, RR’s chase never quite got going. They lost wickets at regular intervals, failing to build any significant partnerships. In the course of the game, it was only Sanju Samson (32) and Shimron Hetmyer (27) who showed their resistance, though after they were both bowled, RR’s hopes literally went off. SRH’s’ bowling was too much for them to bear.
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Shahbaz Ahmed was given the Player of the Match award for his outstanding performance in both batting and bowling. When he came in as the number 7 left-hander he made 28 off 15 balls which was what Sunrisers Hyderabad needed from the lower order team. Sunrisers needed something to get them going down the order so the inning of just 28 was rather important for him, not only to absorb but also maintain pressure against Rajasthan Royals.
The win marks a remarkable turnaround for SRH, who endured a mixed bag of results throughout the league stage. The finals against KKR might prove to be a really exciting end to the 2024 IPL season. They are finally hitting their stride at just the right moment and will enter them full of conviction.
