Aakash Chopra on SRH’s dramatic win over RR: “This is a game of margins, and you lost to margins when you overstepped.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad completed a sensational chase, defeating Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in Match 52 of the IPL 2023 on Sunday evening at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Jos Buttler scored 95 (59b, 10×4, 4×6) and Sanju Samson was not out on 66 (38b, 4×4, 5×6) to help the Royals accumulate 214 runs in 20 overs. Abhishek Sharma, SRH’s opener, scored 55 runs (34 balls, 5 fours, 2 sixes) to keep the team on track for victory.

The contest ultimately came down to the final ball, when Abdul Samad smashed a six off medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma to help his team cross the finish line. In the losing effort, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal tied Dwayne Bravo’s record of 183 IPL wickets with his final figures of 4/29. This match tied for the third-highest target successfully pursued in IPL history.

SRH scored 43 runs in the final two overs, with Kuldeep Yadav conceding 24 runs in the nineteenth over, 22 of which were scored by Glenn Phillips, who hit three consecutive sixes and a boundary.

Aakash Chopra, a JioCinema IPL expert, disapproved of awarding Kuldeep Yadav the ball in the 19th over, stating, “We discussed how a single decision can be the difference between winning and losing. Who threw the nineteenth over? If it had to be done, Sandeep Sharma or Obed McCoy should have done it. Kuldeep Yadav could have bowled, and I’m not saying he can’t be better or is mediocre, but he should not have bowled this over.

Chopra also commented poetically on Sandeep Sharma’s final over no-ball, stating, “They caught it and thought the game was over, but this is a game of margins, and you lost because you overstepped. If you cross the line, you must confront the consequences.”

Brett Lee, an additional JioCinema IPL expert, enjoyed the competition. “What’s happening in this IPL? Sincerely, I cannot fathom it. This has been an incredible conclusion. It has been an extraordinary weekend of cricket, and tonight’s game has been fantastic. I believed there was no hope with that many runs in those balls.”