Picture Credit: IPL/Instagram
The SunRisers Hyderabad might have been, for all practical reasons, ruled out of the IPL 2021 Playoffs race but they definitely would be looking to finish the season on a high. With just a win against their name in the first 9 matches of the competition, Hyderabad have perhaps ventured out on that path with an inspired win over Rajasthan Royals.
However, that came after the management had to make some tough calls. While the Orange Army had backed the same team to come good in the second match of the UAE-leg of IPL 2021 after a defeat in their first when they could not perform well and the side had no choice but to give a chance to some of the youngsters and personnel waiting for their turn on the bench.
The names among those that were benched included franchise great David Warner and he was replaced by Jason Roy. While the Aussie had a poor run in the first half of the competition, his horror run continued in the second half as he was dismissed in the first over of the innings in both their matches against Delhi and Punjab. Consequently, Hyderabad were forced to leave him out of the XI.
Roy too grabbed the opportunity with both hands and scored a superb 60 from 42 balls which included 8 boundaries and 1 six. Reacting to Roy's half-century, Warner took it sportingly and shared an Instagram story where he used clapping emojis to congratulate the Englishman.
Check out the Instagram story here:
Meanwhile, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav were the other batters who were dropped from the XI while Khaleed Ahmed was also rested due to an injury. In their places, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma and Siddharth Kaul were tried and the new team combination immediately bore fruits for the Orange Army.
While SRH bowlers kept RR down to 164/5, they later chased it down with 9 balls left and 7 wickets remaining. Other than Roy, skipper Williamson also returned to form with an unbeaten 51. Abhishek contributed with an unbeaten 21 after pacer Siddharth Kaul finished with figures of 2/36. However, Garg departed for a golden duck.