Hyderabad, May 18: A fighting Sunrisers Hyderabad upstaged Rajasthan Royals by 23 runs here on Friday to greatly enhance their chances of playoff qualification in the ongoing T20 league.
The hosts were restricted to 136/9 in their 20 overs by the visitors who played the game under the shadow of the spot-fixing scandal which has rocked the franchise. However, Hyderabad's bowlers, once again, rose to the occasion and made life difficult for Rajasthan who ended up at 113/9.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra was the pick of the bowlers for Hyderabad with figures of 4-0-8-2. Dale Steyn once again proved difficult to hit, ending with impressive figures of 4-0-17-2. Sunrisers are now fourth in the points tally with 18 points and play their final league match against Kolkata at home.
Earlier, the Royals showed that they were a resilient lot and were not willing to let the fixing incident affect their on-field performance. The Rahul Dravid-led side, which has been the surprise package of the tournament, looked a determined lot.
Left-arm seamer James Faulker led the visitors' attack with a five for 16 haul that thwarted the hosts' attempts to put up a big score on the board. This is Faulker's second five-wicket haul this season. Incidentally, his earlier five for 20 was also against the Sunrises in Jaipur last month. The only other bowler to have a five-wicket haul this season is Jaidev Unadkat of Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Tasmanian, who has 26 wickets to his credit thus far, is now the proud owner of the purple cap.
Biplab Samantray saved the hosts' blushes with an attacking half-century that gave them something to fight for. Samantray struck six fours and a six in his 46-ball 55.
Earlier, Faulkner struck the first blow when he forced Parthiv Patel to edge the first ball on to the stumps. Five balls later, Faulkner got rid of the dangerous Shikhar Dhawan. The southpaw tried to drive through the line but the thick outside edge was taken by Ajinkya Rahane at point.
Skipper Cameroon White seemed in a hurry as he pulled a short ball from Shane Watson down Siddharth Trivedi's throat at fine leg.
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