Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL and Twitter
While SunRisers Hyderabad are still mathematically alive in the competition, realistically speaking, their chances of making it to the Playoffs are very less. However, they would still want to finish the season on a high and spoil the fun of other teams who are very much in the race for the a Playoff spot. They seemed to have set out on the same path as they showed during the IPL 2021 match against the Rajasthan Royals at the Dubai International Stadium.
Not only did they send out a loud and clear message by resting the out-of-form batters David Warner, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav but there was also a refreshing approach from the players. Although it was Rajasthan who opted to bat first, the SunRisers Hyderabad kept them down to 164/5. Later with the help of Jason Roy's quickfire 60, who had replaced Warner in the XI, and Kane Williamson's unbeaten 41-ball 51, the Orange Army finished the chase with 9 balls remaining and 7 wickets in hand.
Sanju Samson's 82 from 57 balls went in vain as their team yet again dropped the 2 points on offer and missed out an opportunity to reach the number 4 place at the points tally. The result has also set up the table very nicely for the Playoffs race. As many as four teams- Kolkata Knight Riders, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians now have 8 points from 10 matches.
The top three teams are Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore with 16, 16 and 12 points respectively but the fourth team is Kolkata who edge out the three other teams only on a superior net run rate.
Following Hyderabad's win, there have been all kinds of reactions pouring in on social media. While there were memes on SRH being the perfect party spoilers for Rajasthan win, others took a dig at other teams wanting a Hyderabad victory to make it easier for themselves to reach the Playoffs.
Check out some of the most hilarious Tweets about the match here:
The tournament will now witness a doubleheader on Tuesday with Kolkata up against Delhi in a 3:30 pm (IST) at Sharjah. The other fixture of the day will see Mumbai taking on Punjab at Abu Dhabi.