A patient half-century by Ajinkya Rahane and some disciplined bowling display helped Rajasthan Royal notch up a comfortable four-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPl match here on Friday.
Rahane shared a 77-run fourth wicket partnership with Stuart Binny (48 not out) to rescue Rajasthan after they were precariously placed at 31-3 in 6.2 overs.
The 25-year-old Mumbaikar hit six boundaries in his 53-ball 59-run innings to anchor the chase as Rajasthan overhauled Hyderabad's score of 133-6 with three balls to spare at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
Earlier, Rajat Bhatia (2/22), Dhawal Kulkarni (2/23), Kane Richardson (2/25) and Pravin Tambe (0/23) bowled brilliantly as Rajasthan restricted Hyderabad to 133 for 6 in their stipulated 20 overs.
Chasing 134 to win, Rajasthan had a horrible start as they lost Abhishek Nayar (4), Sanju Samson (3) and skipper Shane Watson (3) cheaply.
While Dale Steyn (2/29) trapped opener Nayar infront of his wicket only in his third ball, Samson was sent packing by Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/21) when the batsman's miscued shot was caught by Dhawan in the fourth over as Rajasthan could only score 30 in their powerplay overs.
In the next over, Ishant Sharma (1/29) had Watson caught behind by wicket-keeper lokesh Rahul with an away going delivery as Rajasthan slumped to 31 for three.
Opener Rahane, however, dug his heels and started to weave a partnership with newman Binny. With Rahane struggling with his timing, Binny blasted a four and a six in the 10th over off Darren Sammy as Rajasthan scored 61/3 in the first 10 overs.
The duo played sensible cricket as they kept taking ones and twos, besides the odd boundaries, to keep the scoreboard ticking. They brought up their 50-run partnership off 40 balls for the fourth Wicket. looking for a wicket, Dhawan brought Steyn back into the attack but his first ball went to the boundary as Rahane brought up his hard-earned fifty off 46 balls. The 25-year-old then dispatched the next ball for another boundary.
Binny then brought up the 100 for Rajasthan with a couple of runs. They later lost Rahane, Brad Hodge and Bhatia in the space of 23 runs but Binny hung in there and produced some brilliant boundaries to take his team home with the support of James Faulkner in the end.
Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan (38) and David Warner (32) shared a 77-run stand off 64 balls to set the foundation for Hyderabad but they left the job half done as Hyderabad failed to accelarate in the second half of their innings.
Brief Scores
SH: 133/6 (Dhawan 38 Warner 32; Bhatia 2/22, Kulkarni 2/23, Richarson 2/25) lost to RR: 135/6 in 19.3 overs (Rahane 59, Binny 48 no; Steyn 2/29, Mishra 2/26) by 4 wickets.