STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsAfter four games in the 15th edition of the IPL, a team won for the first time while defending a target. In just 10 innings there have already been three scores of 200+ scored, 175+ in two innings. Interestingly, all have been outside Wankhede.
Kane Williamson, SRH skipper, won the toss and sent RR to bat first. They would have had a dream start in the first over if Bhuvneshwar Kumar hadn’t overstepped when Jos Buttler edged one to Abdul Samad at slips. RR batsmen made full use of the opportunity and smashed 58 runs in the first six without losing a wicket. Though they lost both their openers in a span of two overs, RR skipper Sanju Samson and Devdutt Padikkal forged a 41-ball 73-run partnership for the fourth wicket. However, Shimron Hetmyer’s blazing innings of 32 at a strike rate of 246.2 propelled them to a mammoth score of 210/6.
In reply, it felt as if SRH batsmen were batting on a battlefield. Trent Boult from one end was shooting bullets at them and Prasidh Krishna at the other was throwing grenades at them. SRH lost the chase in the first six overs when they scored only 14 runs for the loss of three wickets. Aiden Markram with his unbeaten knock of 51 and Washington Sundar’s cameo of 40 from 14 balls made sure they didn’t succumb to a huge defeat. Here are a few stats from the game:
Samson off to yet another perfect start
The skipper of RR, Samson, has taken the expression “first impression” to another level. Now, let Samson play for any team, he makes sure he scores well in his first match.
The saga of performing in the first match started from 2018 for Samson. In his first match he scored a 42-ball 49, then followed it up by a 30 in 2019. He upped the ante in 2020 when he scored 74 and bettered it with a century in 2021. In the first match of 2022, he registered another half-century and guided his team to a win. It was not only a hat-trick of 50+ scores in the first match since 2020, but also a hat-trick of “Man of the Match” awards.
SRH spinners gone for plenty
The absence of Rashid Khan was felt dearly in the first match of the 2022 edition of the IPL for SRH. Their main spinner Sundar, who is known to be a miser, went for 47 runs in three overs by conceding at an economy of 15.7 and five sixes to go with it.
In the only over Abhishek Sharma bowled, he gave 15 runs. In total, their spinners conceded at an economy of 15.5 in the four overs they bowled in this match. In an IPL match where their spinners have bowled four or more overs, this was their worst.
SRH succumb to the lowest PP score
The target was too big, but nothing is impossible in the IPL. However, the start to the chase had to be good for SRH. Unfortunately, they were off to the worst possible start.
Even if they had lost three wickets and scored around 60 runs, the chase would still have been on. Instead, they lost wickets and scored only 14 runs. Prasidh was the chief wrecker as he bagged two wickets and conceded only two runs in his three overs inside the first six. By registering a score of 14/3, SRH recorded the joint lowest score in the first six overs in the history of the tournament.
Chahal at 250 wickets in T20
In the first match for RR after his shift from Royal Challengers Bangalore, Yuzvendra Chahal made an impression. He bagged three wickets in his full quota of four overs at an economy of 5.5.
En route his three-wicket spell, Chahal also became the fourth bowler among Indians to bag 250 wickets in T20s and all four have been spinners. Interestingly, Ravichandran Ashwin is the only finger spinner in that list. Piyush Chawla with 270, leads the list.
Sundar’s blazing innings
The way SRH batsmen were scoring before Sundar came into bat, they were nowhere close to reaching 120. After having a horrendous day with the ball, Sundar made it up with the bat after he scored a 40 off just 14 balls.
His innings consisted of five fours and two sixes. In one over against Nathan Coulter-Nile, he smashed 24 runs. His innings strike rate of 287.5 in the match against RR was the second best for an SRH batsman in an innings in which 25 or more runs were scored.
Sunrisers suffer their third largest defeat
At the 15th over mark it looked like SRH would suffer a massive defeat, probably their biggest or the biggest in the tournament’s history. But, Aiden Markram and Romario Shephard’s partnership of 41 for the sixth wicket and Markram and Sundar’s partnership of 55 for the seventh wicket saved them from a crushing defeat. Nevertheless, the 61-run defeat will hamper their net run rate going forward. Only against Chennai Super Kings in 2013 (77 runs) and Punjab Kings in 2014 (72 runs), SRH had suffered larger defeats.
