The third day of the 2018 IPL saw Hyderabad (SRH) annihilate Rajasthan (RR) by nine wickets to start their campaign on a flier at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Shikhar Dhawan scored a brilliant 77 not out off 57 balls as Hyderabad chased down 126 to take all two points. Here is how the teams are placed in the standings after the completion of the SRH-RR match.
TEAM M W L T P NRR
SRH 1 1 0 0 2 1.771
KKR 1 1 0 0 2 0.598
KXIP 1 10 0 2 0.567
CSK 1 1 0 0 2 0.271
MI 1 0 1 0 0 -0.271
DD 1 0 1 0 0 -0.567
RCB 1 0 1 0 0 -0.598
RR 1 0 10 0 -1.771
Going back to the match, hosts SRH won the toss and decided to have a field. Apart from Sanju Samson (49 off 42 balls), the rest of the RR batsmen failed to find their feet against some very good bowling from SRH. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and medium pacer Siddarth Kaul took two wickets apiece, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Billy Stanlake and Afghan star Rashid Khan took one wicket each.
In their chase, SRH lost Wriddhiman Saha for 5 in the second over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat. But that was as good as it got for the visitors. Williamson, SRH captain this season in the absence of the banned David Warner, made 36 off 35 balls and forged an unbeaten 121-run stand for the second wicket with Dhawan to romp home in 15.5 overs.
In the fifth match of the league on Tuesday, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's CSK will host Dinesh Karthik's KKR at the Chidambaram Stadium. Both teams will look to build on their winning start this season.
