RR vs SRH IPL 2019: Warner blitz triumphs classy Samson ton

Sanju Samson produced the first hundred of IPL 2019 laden with elegance and grace, Ajinkya Rahane’s sublime touch offered 70 runs while S Gopal’s resilient bowling spell delivered three wickets. But all these individual brilliance faded away as the duo of Warner-Bairstow hammered 110 runs off 58 balls to set SRH’s first win of IPL 2019.

SRH won the first battle of the night by introducing Rashid Khan in the fourth over of the innings which negated the massive threat of Jos Buttler.

But then skipper Ajinkya Rahane rose to the occasion and belted 70 run off 49 balls. Importantly he cantered 50 runs off 29 balls after Powerplay overs, a huge improvement in his game.

The Sanju Samson show

A fine century from Samson and a knock of 70 by the Skipper, propel @rajasthanroyals to a total of 198/2.

Will the @SunRisers chase the total down or will the @rajasthanroyals defend it?#VIVOIPL pic.twitter.com/7GqqysMxtO

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 29, 2019

However the first half belonged to Sanju Samson whose glorious hitting took Royals to 198 in 20 overs. After getting his eye in, Samson went berserk in the death overs and without playing any ramp or ugly shots allowed Rajasthan to get 64 runs off the last 25 balls.

The highlight was his carnage against Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 18th over. Samson scored 24 runs off that over all with elegant and classy strokes and brought his 100 in the 20th over.

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Warner-Bairstow set SRH on course 

?? @davidwarner31 #SRHvRR pic.twitter.com/FTnE8veszh

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 29, 2019

Samson’s artistic brilliance was overshadowed by David Warner’s ruthless hammering in the second-half. The SRH opener scored his second fifty in as many innings in IPL 2019 and scored 69 runs off 37 balls.

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His partner Jonny Bairstow was lethal too and he added 45 runs off 28 balls. The opening partnership scored 110 runs in 9.4 overs and virtually ended Rajasthan’s challenge.

In #IPL, targets of 199 or more successfully chased on 12 occasions at…
– Bangalore and Hyderabad (three occasions each)
– Chennai (twice)
– Kolkata/Abu Dhabi/Indore/Delhi (once each)#SRHvRR#IPL2019

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) March 29, 2019

But Royals struck back, first by sending back Warner and Bairstow in successive overs and then by removing Williamson, Shankar and Pandey in a span of 7 balls.

But with 31 needed of 26 balls, Yusuf Pathan and Rashid Khan steered SRH home in the 19th over without further damage.