Sunrisers Hyderabad made their way into their third IPL final after their bowlers helped them register a thumping win over Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday, May 24.
Sunrisers restricted the Royals with a clinical all-round performance from the bowlers. Spin all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed and part-timer Abhishek Sharma starred with their left-arm finger spin in derailing the strong start by the Royals.
Jaiswal provided a strong start with his 21-ball 42 but when the two spinners came, RR lost the steam. From being at 51/1 after the first six overs, RR went down to 79/5 in 11.4 overs. Dhruv Jurel put a late fight with his 56-run knock from 35 balls. But Jurel was running out of partners as none of the other batters could put up a fight when he was in. It was not enough as the 2008 champions failed to make their third entry into the final.
The pitch seemed to help spinners in the second innings with the wicket looking slow in the later part of the game. The RR's spinners - Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin - did not had a great time with the ball (part of which was due to the surface being better with the spin in the 2nd innings). SRH spinners came of age in this game. From not being penetrative in the earlier games, Shahbaz and Abhishek changed the course of the game.
Shahbaz got Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag and Ravichandran Ashwin, while Abhishek removed Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer. The pacers did their job as well with T Natarajan being mingy for his 1/13 in three overs. There was no dew which made it pretty easy for Sunrisers bowlers to grip the ball.
Sunrisers made 175/9 batting first with a half-century from Heinrich Klaasen being the only fifty-plus score for them. Klaasen made 50 from 34 and led his team's charge in the middle overs. While the wickets kept tumbling, he was steady with one end to help SRH post a strong total before being cleaned up by Sandeep Sharma in the 19th over.
SRH will now be meeting KKR in the final of the tournament on May 26 at the same venue in Chennai.
