DUBAI, Oct 22:
Manish Pandey smashed eight sixes in a blistering 83 after Jason Holder made an instant impact with the ball as Sunrisers Hyderbad kept themselves in the race for IPL play-offs with an eight-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals here on Thursday.
Pandey and Vijay Shankar (52) stitched an unbroken 140-run partnership after Holder led a disciplined bowling display to restrict Rajasthan Royals to 154 for six.
Playing his first match of the tournament, Holder (3/33) came up with an impressive bowling effort while also affecting a run out to destabilise the RR innings. Rashid Khan (1/20) and Vijay Shankar (1/15) picked a wicket each.
During his unbeaten 47-ball knock, Pandey hit four balls to the fence and eight over it, while Shankar struck six boundaries.
The duo played intelligently in a must-win game for the Sunrisers.
With the win, Sunrisers moved up to the fifth spot, while the Royals were pushed down to seventh.
The Sunrisers’ chase was off to the worst possible start with skipper David Warner (4) giving away his wicket to Jofra Archer once again in the very first over. The Barbadian-born English pacer then got rid of Jonny Bairstow (10) in his second over.
With the dangerous openers back in the dugout, Pandey made full use of the field restrictions in the first six overs. He targeted young Kartik Tyagi, smashing the right-arm medium pacer for three boundaries and two sixes. (PTI)
Rajasthan Royals:
R Uthappa run out 19
B Stokes b R Khan 30
S Samson b Holder 36
J Buttler c Nadeem b Shankar 9
S Smith c Pandey b Holder 19
R Parag c Warner b Holder 20
R Tewatiya not out 2
J Archer not out 16
Extras (WD-2) 2
Total (For 6 wickets in 20 overs) 154
Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-86, 3-86, 4-110, 5-134, 6-135
Bowling: S Sharma 4-0-31-0, J Holder 4-0-33-3, V Shankar 3-0-15-1, T Natarajan 4-0-46-0, R Khan 4-0-20-1, S Nadeem 1-0-9-0.
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
David Warner c Stokes b Jofra Archer 4
Jonny Bairstow b Jofra Archer 10
Manish Pandey not out 83
Vijay Shankar not out 52
Extras: (lb-1, w-6) 7
Total: 156/2 in 18.1 overs
Fall of wickets: 4-1, 16-2
Bowling: Jofra Archer 4-0-21-2, Ankit Rajpoot 1-0-11-0, Kartik Tyagi 3.1-0-42-0, Ben Stokes 2-0-24-0, Shreyas Gopal 4-0-32-0, Rahul Tewatia 4-0-25-0. PTI
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