IPL 2022: Rajasthan Royals make Sunrisers Hyderabad pay after Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s first over no-ball | Cricket

Five balls into the innings and Rajasthan Royals must have been taken aback by this sudden favour—a no-ball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The four previous deliveries were nicely leading up to this culmination—a neat edge off Jos Buttler’s bat. There was a bit of brashness first up when Buttler walked down the pitch to counter the ball. But it beat his edge. He left the next ball before being drawn into a drive and then again negotiated a leave. Two slips looking over his shoulder Buttler gave in this time, reaching out for a drive with his feet firmly rooted to the crease.

Rajasthan Royals should have been 0/1. But they weren’t. They went on to pile up 210/6. Buttler and Shimron Hetmyer plundered three sixes each and captain Sanju Samson five as Sunrisers Hyderabad creaked under the pressure of batters going at strike rates of over 200. Momentum, depending on the format, can be zeroed down to that one delivery, or one over or one spell of play. For Royals, it was possibly Buttler’s reversed dismissal. For how they mounted the assault after that over by Kumar made it look as if it was never supposed to happen.

But you prepare for Kumar, even on his bad days. Royals readily accorded him that respect because they knew this Sunrisers side had neither Rashid Khan nor Jason Holder. Kumar wasn’t resting on his glories though. Normally a deft operator of the slower ball, Kumar didn’t try even one in his last two overs and still got thwacked for two sixes by Hetmyer. End of the innings, Kumar walked out of the carnage with a 7.25 economy but Washington Sundar went at 15.66, T Natarajan 10.75, Umran Malik 9.75 and Romario Shepherd for 8.25. Leaking 69 runs in the last five overs, this was a sobering outing for an overhauled—and clearly out of depth—Sunrisers side.

With the game already tipping wildly towards Royals at the halfway mark, Sunrisers had but only one choice in their chase—attack. But this is probably half the batting side they were in 2021. And Royals, with Ravichandran Ashwin bowling in tandem with Yuzvendra Chahal after opening acts from Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna, are twice the bowling side they were last season. It could have only gone one way. Kane Williamson was caught at slip, Rahul Tripathi by the wicketkeeper, Nicholas Pooran was trapped by a quick Boult inswinger and Abhishek Sharma failed to clear the boundary. Four down by the ninth over, none of them crossing 10, Sunrisers barely managed to flicker on as they hurtled towards an inevitable defeat.