Their batting slumped after Kane Williamson's half-century, but 151 was plenty for the best attack in the IPL
Commentator: Akshay Gopalakrishnan
That's a wrap of this game. Deiva's report will be up shortly in case you missed the important parts of the game. Over to RCB v KKR now, where the home team are without AB de Villiers and have been asked to bat. See you all later.
Presentation time.
Kane Williamson is Man of the Match. "We had a good start. The surface was on the slow side, and there was not much bounce. I thought the way they bowled the short ball was pretty good, and it's something we wanted to do in our bowling innings. It was nice to get that dismissal early. Yusuf's wicket was lucky, but it was a good wicket at that stage because Stokes is a dangerous player. We didn't get the 10-15 more on a challenging surface, but it was an improvement nevertheless. Twenty20 is unpredictable in nature and it's nice to get a few wins on the board. Alex is world-class in this format. He made a very good contribution today."
7.26pm SRH have done it again. For the third time in the last week, their batting has underwhelmed but their bowlers have bailed them out. This is easily the strongest attack in the tournament. Ajinkya Rahane can't get the job done, and you can't help but wonder it he left it all a little too late. Rahane isn't blessed with the same kind of hitting prowess as Dhoni or Kohli, so waiting until the last hour to accelerate could be a risky proposition with him. Brilliant spells by Sandeep Sharma and Siddarth Kaul, and Basil Thampi did well in that last over, too, after starting off badly. Until Sanju Samson was there with Rahane, it seemed like Sunrisers had this all figured out. And then, they lost it towards the end. Rahane's struggles to put the balls away were hard to watch. Important not to forget the brilliant contribution of Kane Williamson who propelled their batting effort on a slow pitch with a rapid half-century.
Jon Snow: "RR doesn't look like the team to win at all. Horrible Catching (this time no excuse of catching under lights too) and all international players (except Archer) have performed poorly. Why would you send Lomror ahead of big hitting Gowtham when you have to chase more than 11 runs per over?"
Sooryanarayanan: "Sunrisers are the Sun-setters for opposition batsmen. And to think that Bhuvi is set to make a comeback soon."
Stat nugget from Bharath Seervi: Rahane is the first opener to have two unbeaten 50s in unsuccessful chases in IPL. He had scored 84* off 63 v DD in a chase of 153 and lost by 1 run in 2012, and 65* off 53 today. Fourth batsman overall with two unbeaten 50s in unsuccessful chases -- Dhoni, Miller and Morris are the others; all the three bat in lower order.
K Gowtham c Dhawan b Basil Thampi 8 (5b 1x4 0x6) SR: 160.00
RR losing it here. Shane Warne has a glum expression at the dugout.
Thampi. He has 20 to defend.
On a tough pitch with variable bounce, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain provided a batting template that his Rajasthan Royals counterpart failed to emulate
With Sunrisers' bowling, as it turns out. Also, let's talk about Ben Stokes and Ajinkya Rahane (again)
Their batting slumped after Kane Williamson's half-century, but 151 was plenty for the best attack in the IPL
The race to the playoffs is on; while Sunrisers seem quite comfortable at top, Royals will hope their million-dollar gambles rescue them and seal a spot in the top four
