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Rajasthan Royals chose to bat first after winning the toss against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 7. The Royals set up a massive total in their 20 overs courtesy of fabulous hitting from the openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal. They had a fifty-run opening stand, scoring 54 in just 5.4 overs. After that at no.3 came skipper Sanju Samson and took the SRH bowling lineup to the cleaners. Sanju finished the innings at 66*(38) with the Royals finishing their innings at 214/2.
After a game of such outstanding striking by the batting lineup, RR still lost the game by four wickets. Commentator Aakash Chopra did not hold back in his YouTube video when he said, "To ask the question whether more runs could have been scored there, I mean you will never know. But if you can't defend 214 runs, it's not a problem of batters, it is a problem of bowlers, especially when there was no dew." He also believed that the RR bowlers must take responsibility for the defeat, and to some extent, poor captaincy, that they inflicted on the RR batters during their match against SRH.
He also stated that giving the 19th over to Kuldip Yadav was a huge blunder which cost them the game. Chopra felt that Sanju Samson should have given the ball to Obed McCoy or Sandeep Sharma as they are way more experienced than young Kuldip Yadav.
Kiwi batter Glenn Phillips hit three consecutive sixes in the 19th over followed by a four which proved to be the turning point of the game. He was also awarded the player of the match award for his short cameo of 25 (7). Despite the loss, Rajasthan Royals sit at the fourth position with 10 points. They will next face the Kolkata Knight Riders in their next fixture on May 11 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
