Four in four for the Royals

Visakhapatnam, Riding on Ajinkya Rahane’s fifty, Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets to notch up their fourth consecutive win in this edition of the IPL here today.
Chasing a below-par 128 for win, the table-toppers made heavy weather of the run chase before achieving the target on the last delivery.
The SRH bowlers did well to take the match thus far but Rahane’s 56-ball 62 proved to be the difference between the two sides. Man of the match Rahane, who registered his first half-century of this season, and Sanju Samson (26) worked well for their 64-run opening stand before a few wickets made the match exciting in the end.
Rahane, with 155 runs, has become the leading run-getter in this edition. A chance for SRH came in the seventh over when Samson clubbed the ball to the mid-off region but the skier was floored by Ashish Reddy after making good ground to reach the ball. The unlucky bowler was Praveen Kumar.
In the 11th over, Ravi Bopara was more than lucky as wicketkeeper Naman Ojha came up with a brilliant diving catch to send back Samson. The wicket did dry up the flow of runs, but the small target helped their cause as Rahane stayed on with skipper Steven Smith (13) to bring them closer to a win.
Smith was done in by leg-spinner Karn Sharma in the 14th over and Bopara struck for the second time in the very next over to get Karun Nair (1) caught and bowled.
Rahane, whose knock was laced with nine boundaries, couldn’t take the team to the finish line as Trent Boult clean bowled him in the 19th over. Needing to defend five runs off the final six deliveries, Praveen Kumar bowled well but James Faulkner (6) hit the winning four off the final ball. Stuart Binny did well to stay unbeaten on 16.
Earlier, backing Smith’s decision to field first on a slowish track, RR bowlers Dhawal Kulkarni and Pravin Tambe picked up two wickets each to restrict SRH to 127 for five in 20 overs.
SRH did not have the best of starts after losing their top four batsmen for just 35 runs but a 52-run fourth wicket partnership between Naman Ojha (25) and Eoin Morgan (27) did put a stop to the wicket-fall, though only for a while. Opener Shikhar Dhawan was the first to go, caught behind off Dhawal Kulkarni (2-9) after a scratchy 10-run stay at the crease.
Warner (21) was unlucky after Rahane ended the in-form opener’s blitz in the middle with a direct hit. Kulkarni kept the good work going after trapping Lokesh Rahul lbw for 2. — PTI
Scoreboard
Sunrisers Hyderabad
D Warner run out 21
S Dhawan c Samson b Kulkarni 10
L Rahul lbw b Kulkarni 2
N Ojha b Tambe 25
E Morgan lbw b Tambe 27
R Bopara not out 23
A Ashish Reddy not out 13
Extras (B-1, WD-4, NB-1) 6
Total (5 wkts in 20 ov) 127
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-35, 3-35, 4-87, 5-96
Bowling
T Southee 4-0-30-0
C Morris 3-0-23-0
D Hooda 2-0-11-0
D Kulkarni 3-1-9-2
J Faulkner 2-0-20-0
S Binny 2-0-12-0
P Tambe 4-0-21-2
Rajasthan Royals
A Rahane b Boult 62
S Samson c Ojha b Bopara 26
S Smith c Warner b Sharma 13
K Nair c&b Bopara 1
S Binny not out 16
J Faulkner not out 6
Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 4) 7
Total (4 wickets; 20 ov) 131
Fall of wickets: 1-64 2-84 3-91 4-118
Bowling
B Kumar 4-0-25-0
T Boult 4-0-31-1
P Kumar 4-0-30-0
K Sharma 3-0-19-1
R Bopara 4-0-18-2
A Ashish Reddy 1-0-5-0