Chennai. Sunrisers Hyderabad recovered from a poor start against Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier of the Indian Premier League on Friday with Heinrich Klaasen’s half-century and scored 175 runs for nine wickets. Klaasen scored 50 runs in 34 balls with four sixes. He also shared a 42-run partnership for the fourth wicket with opener Travis Head (34) and a 43-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Shahbaz Ahmed (18). Rahul Tripathi (37) also played a useful innings.
For the Royals, Avesh Khan (three wickets for 27 runs) and Trent Boult (three wickets for 45 runs) took three wickets each while Sandeep Sharma (two wickets for 25 runs) took two wickets. Royals captain Sanju Samson won the toss and decided to bowl first. Abhishek Sharma (12) hit a six and a four off consecutive balls of Boult in the first over but got caught by Tom Kohler-Cadmore by waving the last ball in the air.
Tripathi started with three fours and a six off Ravichandran Ashwin. He hit a six and a four off consecutive balls of Bolt but was caught by Yuzvendra Chahal at short third man on the next bouncer. Tripathi hit five fours and two sixes in his 15-ball innings. In the same over of Bolt, Aiden Markram (01) was also caught by Chahal at short third man. Head took the team’s score to 68 runs for three wickets in the power play with two fours off Sandeep. Head welcomed Avesh with a six and a four off consecutive balls while Klaasen hit a six off Chahal.
However, Head then played Sandeep’s ball into Ashwin’s hands at short third man. He faced 28 balls and hit three fours and a six. Sunrisers’ century of runs was completed in the 11th over. Avesh gave the fifth blow to Sunrisers by getting Nitish Kumar Reddy (05) caught by Chahal at short third man and then bowled Abdul Samad (00) on the next ball.
Klaasen held one end. Shahbaz Ahmed, who came in as an impact player in place of Head, hit a six on Ashwin. Klaasen sent Bolt’s ball into the crowd and then completed his half-century in 33 balls with a run. However, Sandeep ended Klaasen’s innings by bowling him with an accurate yorker, due to which the Sunrisers team could score only 12 runs in the last two overs.