IPL 2021: Roy, Williamson star as Sunrisers outplay Rajasthan

Dubai - The English opener makes 60, while the skipper scores unbeaten 51

Sunrisers Hyderabad notched only their second win in 10 Indian Premier League games after beating Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets on Monday.

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Hyderabad, already out of playoff reckoning, cruised to 167-3 in 18.3 overs on the back of Jason Roy’s impressive 60 and skipper Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 51.

Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson, who won the toss and opted to bat, was the cornerstone of his team’s total of 164-5 by scoring a splendid 82 off 57 balls.

“Good to be on the right side,” Williamson said after finishing the match with a boundary off Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman.

“We want to build on this, want to see the younger players take their opportunity and enjoy the cricket.”

Roy, playing his first match this season, replaced the struggling David Warner and gave Hyderabad a whirlwind start. The Englishman dominated the two half-century stands with Wriddhiman Saha (18) and Williamson as he smashed eight fours and a six.

Roy dominated the bowlers and hit left-arm spinner Rahul Tewatia for three fours and a six in one over which also saw him getting dropped at extra cover soon after completing his half-century.

Roy was finally dismissed in the 12th over when he attempted a ramp shot down the leg side off Chetan Sakariya and was well caught by Samson behind the wickets.

Earlier, Samson anchored his team’s batting after Liam Livingstone (4) failed to impress for the third consecutive game and West Indian opener Evin Lewis (6) was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar off his first delivery.

Samson wasn’t dismissed until the last over when he lobbed seamer Siddarth Kaul to long on.

“We could have got 10 or 20 more actually,” Samson said. “The last overs was the difference. I wanted to keep going, but we kept losing one or two wickets.”

Roy was delighted with his man-of-the-match performance.

“Makes me extremely happy. Really grateful for the opportunity from Sunrisers. Have been training, and waiting hard. Grateful for this award too — we had some great performances today,” Roy said.

“Happy to get over the line. I had to kind of access different areas. Wasn’t as free-flowing the way I hope. It was a case of getting the team close to the total.”

Roy shared a whirlwind 57-run opening stand with Wriddhiman Saha (18).

“Saha was instrumental in that partnership. Allowed me to relax early on,” Roy said.

“We’ve got to keep our feet very grounded. We’ve had a tough tournament, but to come out today to chase a decent total was hugely impressive. We need to do the basics all over again.”

Rajasthan were still in contention for the four-team playoffs at sixth place. — AP

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