Rajasthan Royals Crush Sunrisers Hyderabad By 72 Runs To Make Winning Start In IPL

Rajasthan Royals crushed Sunrisers Hyderabad by a massive 72-run margin in a one-sided match to start their 2023 Indian Premier League campaign on a winning note in Hyderabad on Sunday. Half-centuries from openers Jos Buttler (54) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (54) and captain Sanju Samson (55) propelled Rajasthan Royals to a huge 203 for 5 batting first, and then Trent Boult (4-1-21-2) and Yuzvendra Chahal (4-0-17-4) ran through SRH's batting line-up, sharing six wickets between them to seal the game in emphatic style.

Chasing 204, SRH could manage a meagre 131 for 8 in 20 overs as Jason Holder, playing against his former franchise, returned with figures of 3-0-16-1 while Ravichandran Ashwin recorded 4-0-27-1.

Mayank Agarwal's 27 (23 balls, 3x4s) was the only bright spot for SRH in the top order while debutant Harry Brook, playing his first IPL game, managed 13 (21 balls, 1x4s) before he was cleaned up by Chahal.

Boult rocked SRH twice in the first over, cleaning up Abhishek Sharma (0) in the third ball and a brilliant catch on his left on first slip by Holder saw Rahul Tripathi walking back for a two-ball duck.

SRH never recovered from the poor start as rampant RR kept making inroads.

Brook fell in the seventh over while Holder got rid of Washington Sundar (1) in the ninth.

In the 10th over, while Ashwin had Glenn Phillips (8) caught by KM Asif, Chahal ended Agarwal's resistance in the next over to seal the game in favour of his side.

SRH's impact substitute Adbul Samad remained unbeaten on a run-a-ball 32 while RR's Navdeep Saini bowled two expensive overs for 34 runs, giving away 23 in the final over of the game.

Earlier, last year's runner-up side RR made a rollicking start, amassing 203 for five, ripping apart the