Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Jason Roy plays a shot during their IPL match against Rajasthan Royals at the Dubai International Stadium on Monday. Courtesy: IPL website

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Jason Roy heralded his arrival in style as he smashed a fifty to steer Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to a seven-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their IPL match on Monday.

Hyderabad, who are out of contention for a play-off berth and playing to salvage pride, dented the hopes of Rajasthan, who suffered the second consecutive loss and remained in the sixth spot with eight points from 10 games.

After restricting Rajasthan to 164/5, Hyderabad chased down the target for the loss of three wickets with nine balls remaining.

Chasing, Roy along with Wriddhiman Saha gave a blistering start to Hyderabad as the opening pair added 57 runs for the first wicket – Hyderabad’s best opening partnership in the three matches.

He was brought into the side in place of David Warner, who was struggling with the bat right from the start of the season.

Warner was first removed from the captaincy and after that he was dropped from the playing XI owing to his bad form with the bat before the IPL was suspended mid-way due to rise in coronavirus cases.

Warner, who had been entrusted with the responsibility of giving a good start to the team, has scored 195 runs in eight innings, hitting just two fifties.

However, Roy lifted the mood in the camp with a fifty in his first match. His innings must have left the opponents giggling secretly, good that Hyderabad did not bring him into the fold earlier.

Lamror broke the opening stand to give Rajasthan first breakthrough. After the departure of Saha, Roy and captain Kane Williamson took the charge in their hands.

They shared a 57-run partnership for the second wicket to take the score to 114/2 before Roy was caught behind the wicket by Samson while trying to work away a Sakariya delivery towards the fine leg using the pace of the ball.

Roy’s 42-ball 60 was studded with eight boundaries and a six. After his dismissal, the onus of taking Hyderabad through came on the shoulder of Williamson.

Hyderabad lost another wicket in quick succession as Priyam Garg struggle with the bat continued. He was dismissed for a golden duck as Mustafizur Rehman of Bangladesh caught him off his own bowling.

But Williamson played sensibly and made sure that there are no more hiccups and took his team over the line as he shared an unbroken 48-run partnership with Abhishek Sharma.

Earlier, after losing Ewin Lewis cheaply with just 11 runs on the board, both Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal knuckled down to put the innings back on the track.

Kumar had Lewis caught by Samad to give Hyderabad their first breakthrough.

In the process, the pair added 56 runs for the second wicket in 8.3 overs. They consumed quite a few deliveries, which slowed down the run rate a bit.

Sanju was more watchful of the two as Jaiswal maintained a healthy strike rate with a 23-ball 35, hitting five boundaries and one over the top.

After the dismissal of Jaiswal, Liam Livingstone, who was brought in for Jonny Bairstow, could not last long and holed out to Samad off Rashid.

After losing two wickets in quick succession, Rajasthan once again went on the backfoot. Rajasthan needed a big partnership and the pair of Samson and Lamror was on the crease once again.

In their last game, Samson and Lamror were the only two batsmen who had shown some courage against the fearsome attack of Delhi Capitals.

Only these players had managed to reach a double-figure mark.

With the in-form duo on the crease, Rajasthan need not press panic button as they had put up a courageous face against a lot more ferocious pace attack of Delhi, featuring the toe-crushers like Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada.

Samson, who had scored an unbeaten 70 against Delhi, nicely paced up his innings as he unleash an attack on the Hyderabad bowlers which was too hot to handle for them.

Samson brought up his fifty with a boundary in the 16th over bowled by Kaul. After reaching his second fifty of the season, he started to cut loose.

He took 20 runs off the over with the help of two consecutive sixes and one four.

Samson also replaced Shikhar Dhawan as the highest scorer, breaching a 400-run mark with the help of two fifties and one century. In the last over, Kaul pulled it back for Hyderabad as he got Samson, who looked set for his second century of the season, caught by Holder on the long on.

He also got rid of out off colour Riyan Parag, who was caught by Roy as the pacer took two wickets, conceding just four runs in his last over.