IPL 2020: Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar power Sunrisers Hyderabad to victory

Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets on Thursday thanks to half-centuries by Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar. With the win, SRH has moved to the fifth spot and has kept its hopes alive for a spot in the playoffs.

Pandey (83) and Vijay Shankar (52) made an unbroken 140-run partnership after Jason Holder led a disciplined bowling display to restrict Rajasthan Royals to 154 for six.

Making his season debut, Holder ended up with figures of 3/33 while Rashid Khan and Shankar took a wicket each. 

SRH’s chase was off to the worst possible start with skipper David Warner (4) giving away his wicket to Jofra Archer in the very first over. Archer then got rid of Jonny Bairstow (10) in his second over.

With both the openers back in the dugout, Pandey made full use of the opportunity. He targeted young Kartik Tyagi and hit the right-arm medium pacer for three boundaries and two sixes.

Robin Uthappa had started off well but a bad short-run call saw him get run-out for 19 runs. Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson kept the innings steady and were slowly starting to build a partnership but Jason Holder had other plans as he clean-bowled Samson. Wickets started falling in regular intervals then on as none of the batsmen were able to put up a decent score.