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Kumar clinches last-ball thriller for Sunrisers

football02 May 2024 18:15
By:Patrick Compton
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Veteran paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar grabbed two wickets in his opening over and then, in a thrilling finish, trapped Rovman Powell leg before with the final ball of the match as the Sunrisers Hyderabad came back from the dead to beat log leaders the Rajasthan Royals by one run in their Tata IPL match at Hyderabad on Thursday.

Chasing 202 for victory after Sunrisers had compiled a challenging 201 for three, the Rajasthan Royals looked well set for victory despite a disastrous start when Kumar had Jos Buttler caught at slip first ball and then castled Sanju Samson with a superb inswinger with his fifth ball.

But then Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag turned the game around with a fine third-wicket partnership of 134 in 12 overs before Jaiswal, who had struck a superb 67 in 40 balls, played on to T Natarajan in much the same way as Travis Head had done in the Sunrisers’ innings.

But still, with Parag looking increasingly confident, the Royals remained in the ascendency until Parag (77 off 49 balls, including 8x4s and 4x6s) mistimed Pat Cummins to Marco Jansen at long-on.

Cummins, who had dropped Jaiswal at mid-off when he had scored seven, only conceded three runs off that over as he made amends for his error.

Still, the Royals looked the likelier team to win with Marco Jansen conceding 15 off the 17th over and Rovman Powell blazing away.

Twenty-seven were needed off three overs but Natarajan restricted them to seven off the 18th and Cummins, remarkably, to seven off the penultimate over.

Thirteen were needed off the final over from Kumar.

Powell struck 11 off the first five balls, helped by some slack fielding, but then, with two runs to win, he was beaten by a low full toss that struck him on the pad directly in front of his wicket.

Kumar finished with 3-41, Cummins with 2-34 and Natarajan 2-35 as the Royals finished one short of their goal on 200 for seven.

It’s the first time in this IPL that the log-leaders have failed to win a match while chasing, having succeeded six times before tonight.

LATE RUN FEST FROM REDDY AND KLAASEN

Earlier, Nitish Kumar Reddy struck an unbeaten 76 in 42 balls to lead Sunrisers to 201 for three after they had won the toss and chosen to bat first.

It was the fifth time that the Sunrisers have passed 200 in this year’s competition, and only the second time that the Royals have allowed the opposition to reach that target.

Reddy featured in two explosive partnerships that enabled the Sunrisers to recover from a slow start, adding 96 in 57 balls with opener Travis Head (58 off 44 balls) and then a blazing 70 off 33 balls for an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership with Heinrich Klaasen who smashed an unbeaten 42 off 19 balls.

And yet it seemed unlikely that the Sunrisers would reach this total after they struggled on a slower than usual pitch with the ball gripping in the surface.

Abishek Sharma departed early for 12 off 10 balls, caught at deep square leg off Avesh Khan, and then Anmolpreet Singh played too early at Sandeep Sharma and lobbed the ball to Yashasvi Jaiswal at midwicket.

Sunrisers only reached 37 for two after six overs, their lowest powerplay total in this year’s competition.

But the Sunrisers changed gear after that with legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal the man to suffer most.

Playing in his 300th T20 match, Chahal went for 62 in his four overs – his worst analysis in the IPL.

Head was lucky to be dropped first ball, and lucky again to avoid being stumped when it looked like his bat had not been grounded, but the second close shave didn’t matter as he played on next ball trying to scoop Avesh Khan, succeeding only in uprooting his own middle stump.

After that it was the Nitish/Klaasen show as the Sunrisers powered their way to a challenging total that proved just enough for the tightest of victories.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins (capt), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (capt, wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravi Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal

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