Fifties from skipper Kane Williamson and opener Jason Roy lead the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a seven-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals at the Dubai International Stadium on Monday. The win was SRH’s first after five successive losses and only the second of a season to forget.

The win further complicates the qualification for the playoff spots, with the Punjab Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians separated only by net run rate and tied on eight points each.    

Winning the toss and chosing to bat, Rajasthan scored 164 runs for the loss of five wickets as skipper Sanju Samson scored his second consecutive fifty in the UAE. Samson scored 82 runs from 57 deliveries with his innings glitterred with seven fours and three sixes. 

The knock took Samson above Delhi Capitals‘ Shikhar Dhawan in the race for the Orange Cap, with the 26-year-old’s season tally standing at 433 from 10 innings. 

Samson was aided with an impressive 23-ball 36 from young opener Yasasvi Jaiswal, who was bowled by Sandeep Sharma after Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Evin Lewis cheaply in the second over of the match.

Liam Livingstone failed to make a mark once again as he mishit a Rashid Khan delivery to pick out Abdul Samad at deep backward square leg. 

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The only other meaningful contribution came from Mahipal Lomror, who scored 29 runs from 28 balls. 

SRH got off to the perfect in the chase as Roy and Saha provided just the kind of explosive start that was lacking all season, stitching a 57-run stand for the first wicket before the latter was stumped by Samson off Lomror. 

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Roy added another 57 runs to the board with Williamson before Chetan Sakariya induced an edge for Samson to collect behind the stumps. The English opener, playing his first match of the season, was adjudged player of the match for his 42-ball 60

Priyam Garg was caught and bowled by Mustafizur Rehman for a golden duck to raise Rajasthan spirits, but the damage had already been done with Williamson and Abhishek Sharma seeing out the win without any fuss.