Riding on a disciplined bowling performance, Sunrises Hyderabad defended a modest total as they beat Rajasthan Royals by 32 runs in the ongoing IPL-7 at Sardar Patel stadium on Thursday. Chasing 134, Royals were bowled out for 102 in 19.5 overs with Buvneshwar Kumar returning with dream figures of 4/14.
Earlier, Royals’ skipper Shane Watson conjured up a hat-trick as Hyderabad put on a spineless batting show to manage a below par 134 for nine. It was a pathetic batting display by Hyderabad as more than the Rajasthan bowling, it was poor shot selection of the Hyderabad batsmen that let them down.
None of the SRH player, except skipper Shikhar Dhawan (33), applied himself as Watson (3/13) and Rajat Bhatia (3/23) shared six wickets between them. It was a split hat-trick for Watson as he dismissed Dhawan in the last ball of his first over and then sent back Moises Henriques (9) and Karn Sharma (0) when he returned for his second over later in the innings.
In his last match also the burly Australian took three wickets in one over to trigger a KKR batting collapse. Apart from Dhawan, Irfan Pathan’s a-run-a ball unbeaten 21 helped SRH reach at least a modest total.