'Balanced and strong unit', 'X factor': Twitter hails Rajasthan Royals' thumping win over Sunrisers Hyderabad

Led by a dominant batting display, Rajasthan Royals registered a thumping victory in their first game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Tuesday. Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bowl first. After giving Jos Buttler a proper working over in the first 5 balls, Bhuvneshwar Kumar nicked him off, but the replays showed him stepping over the popping crease.

This is when the floodgates truly opened for Rajasthan as the openers Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal plundered the SRH bowlers. Umran Malik, who was at the centre of all attraction, bowled a very expensive first over as he was smacked around for four boundaries by Buttler and leaked 21 runs.

The attack never ceased as Rajasthan Royals reached the 58-run mark at the end of the powerplay. Romario Shepherd got the first breakthrough for SRH when he dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal in the seventh over. Umran Malik then got rid of Jos Buttler in the ninth over. However, the pain was not going to end for Kane Williamson as Sanju Samson stepped up and powered on even as RR reached the 100-run mark in the 11th over.

West Indies power-hitter Shimron Hetmyer came in as the finisher and smashed the bowlers all over the park and ended with 32 runs off 13 balls. Devdutt Padikkal switched gears after a slow start and he ended at 41 runs off 29 balls in an innings that included 4 fours and 2 sixes.

Chasing a target of 211, Sunrisers Hyderabad were off to a terrible start as they lost Kane Williamson for 2, Rahul Tripathi for 0 and Nicholas Pooran for 0. They could never quite recover from this start as Rajasthan’s spinners then came into the attack and never allowed the batters any breathing space.

Only Aiden Markram and Washington Sundar offered some resistance with the bat and they played a number of delightful strokes. However, the bridge was too far for SRH as they lost the match by 61 runs.

Twitter was all praise for Rajasthan and their all-round performance:

Former England spinner Graeme Swann was thrilled with RR’s victory.

https://twitter.com/Swannyg66/status/1508862404771610624

Former India spinner Murali Kartik hailed Rajasthan and called them the perfectly-balanced side.

https://twitter.com/kartikmurali/status/1508867056258908161

Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes Rajasthan has the X-factor.

https://twitter.com/MichaelVaughan/status/1508865776308076551

Harbhajan Singh hailed the dominant performance by RR.

https://twitter.com/harbhajan_singh/status/1508855813523521538

Here are some other reactions:

https://twitter.com/joybhattacharj/status/1508853789821837312

https://twitter.com/ImSai4u/status/1508863474268467201

https://twitter.com/utsav__45/status/1508860792862810113

https://twitter.com/IrfanPathan/status/1508865944344403973

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