In the second IPL 2024 qualifier, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Rajasthan Royals by 36 runs to secure a spot in Sunday's final versus Kolkata Knight Riders.
Abhishek Sharma (2 for 24) and Shahbaz Ahmed (3 for 23) shared five wickets to ensure that Rajasthan Royals (RR) could not control the second qualifier. This allowed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to win by 36 runs at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday, setting up a path for the Indian Premier League final.
Dew did little to disturb the spin pair that took over from the Royals, who had been cruising at 65 for one at one point in the 176-run chase.
Yashasvi Jaiswal opened the scoring with a hook off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first over, but the Royals fell behind the asking rate early on because Tom Kohler-Cadmore was unable to unshackle him.
The Royals needed a 19-run assault from Jaiswal against Bhuvneshwar in the last PowerPlay over to erase the lackluster beginning and turn things around. However, the southpaw wasted another opportunity due to cramping, misfiring on an on-side heave off Shahbaz on 42.
AS IT HAPPENED - SRH vs RR QUALIFIER 2
When Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag were taken out by the boundary riders and died while taking on the spin duo, SRH was leading the match by a significant margin. When Shahbaz caught R. Ashwin behind for a duck, RR's plot to promote him failed.
Shimron Hetmyer, who bats left-handed, was a good match for the left-arm off-spin pair, but even he could not withstand Abhishek's arm-ball, which skidded on and nicked his off stump.
Dhruv Jurel (56 n.o., 32b, 7x4, 2x6) refused to raise the white flag and twice broke the fence off Abhishek and Shahbaz, even with RR staring him down. However, Jurel's 26-ball fifty was too little, too late to save the Royals from the abyss following the collapse of Rovman Powell, the final recognized batter.
Heinrich Klaasen (50, 34b, 4x6) made the comeback from the spinners possible with his innings-saving half-century.
Even when Trent Boult ended Abhishek's attack in the opening over, Rahul Tripathi's 14-ball cameo was the ideal complement to Sunrisers' "throw caution to the wind" PowerPlay strategy.
Tripathi was unfazed by a leading edge that sailed between short third man and backward point off R. Ashwin in the second over, as he proceeded to destroy the IPL's most frugal bowling unit in the first six overs. Especially while sweeping, he delighted in targeting Ashwin and Boult for maximums with the shot.
In the fifth over, however, Boult had the last laugh as his slower bouncer tricked Tripathi into charging to short third man. Like his performance against the Kolkata Knight Riders, Klaasen was called upon to handle the situation when Aiden Markram edged to the same fielder three deliveries later.
After hitting his first boundary off Sandeep Sharma in the sixth over, Travis Head—who had been the ideal foil up until that point—saw SRH finish the PowerPlay at 68 for three. Head scored a further ten runs off Avesh Khan, and then Yuzvendra Chahal was bowled over mid-wicket by Klaasen.
The Sunrisers hitter's comeback was short-lived, as they were defeated by a slower bouncer for the second time in the inning. Sandeep's head holed out to the short third man, putting SRH four behind at 99. With his team in a slump, Klaasen ended a 29-ball stretch without a boundary by going inside out off Chahal.
However, Avesh came back to end the deliveries of Abdul Samad and Nitish Kumar Reddy and expose the Sunrisers' middle-order problems once more.
The Sunrisers' second wind came from Shahbaz's run-a-ball 18 in the 42-run partnership with Klaasen, which carried them to the last over. Even though Sandeep's yorker dismissed Klaasen two balls after he reached fifty, SRH had already amassed a score that would be too much for RR to handle.
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