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Manish Pandey hit a quick half-century before Sunrisers Hyderebad witnessed a middle-order collapse to be restricted to 160 for eight against Rajasthan Royals here on Saturday.
Sent into bat, Sunrisers got off too a good start even after the early dismissal of skipper Kane Williamson (13) with David Warner and Manish Pandey sharing 75 runs off just 50 balls for the second wicket before losing the plot after the halfway stage.
Nicely placed 103 for one after 12 overs, Sunrisers lost their next seven wickets for just 44 runs before Rashid Khan (17 not out off 8) played a short cameo towards the end to take the visitors to the 160-run mark. Sunrisers lost Williamson early, cleaned up by Shreyas Gopal (2/30) with a googly in the fourth over. Warner and Pandey then joined hands and played aggressively to stabilise the Sunrisers innings.
While Pandey was the aggressor of the two, Warner played the second fiddle. Pandey reached his fifty in 27 balls with the help of eight fours but just when the partnership was looking threatening, a brilliant catch by Rajasthan skipper Steve Smith sent Warner packing. Warner backed away a long way and tried to slap an Oshane Thomas (2/28) short delivery over extra cover but didn’t time the shot perfectly and Smith ran back and dived full length to his right to hold on to a beautiful catch.
Warner’s innings was a struggle as he scored 37 off 32 balls but failed to hit a single boundary. Pandey continued his aggressive instinct and lofted Gopal over extra cover for an exquisite boundary. But the leg-spinner hand the last laugh as he dismissed Pandey in the very next ball, brilliantly stumped by Sanju Samson as Sunrsiers slumped to 121 for three after 15 overs. Pandey made a fine 61 off 36 balls with the help of nine boundaries.
Vijay Shankar (8) too perished cheaply, caught by Jaydev Unadkat off Varun Aaron (2/36) in the next over as the batsman went for a big shot. Wickets kept on tumbling for Sunrisers after a fine first wicket stand between Warner and Pandey. The next to depart was Deepak Hooda for a duck caught one-handed off his own bowling by Unadkat (2/26) in the next over. But Rashid took the onus on himself and garnered 18 runs off Aaron’s final over to take Sunrisers to a respectable total.
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