Rajasthan Royals pulled it off in yet another thriller as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets, with just a ball to spare, in Sunday's IPL match at the Dubai International Stadium.
RR faltered at the start of their chase, losing superstars Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Steve Smith inside the opening five overs. Hyderabad mounted pressure and reduced the Royals to 78 for 5 at one stage.
All seemed lost before an 85 run partnership between Rahul Tewatia (45 off 28) and Riyan Parag (42 off 26) saw the Royals through with a five wicket victory and end a four match losing streak.
Two Indians -- uncapped, but talented -- did extremely well to soak in all the pressure and win what appeared to be a lost game. They came together when there was literally no hope and the required run rate was rising. Their assault in the death overs stunned the SunRisers bowlers.
In the 17th over, Parag hammered Sandeep Sharma for a huge six. Later, Tewatia slammed back-to-back boundaries to kick-start the revival.
Sandeep leaked 18 runs in that over. In the next over, Tewatia bludgeoned three successive fours off Rashid Khan to bring the scoring rate down.
He then hit a huge six and boundary off Thangarasu Natarajan, accumulating 14 runs from it. At this point Royals were in cruise control and needed just 8 off 6 balls.
Nothing could stop the two well-set batsmen. Parag finished it off with a six to break into dance.
