IPL 2023: Sanju, Hetmyer power Royals past Titans

Ahmedabad: West Indies batter Shimron Hetmyer unleased his full fury on Gujarat Titans as Rajasthan Royals defeated the reigning champions by three wickets with four balls remaining in an Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

With the win, Royals broke the jinx of not having previously beaten the Hardik Pandya-led side in three outings and topped the table with eight points.

The victory will be all the more sweet considering the 2008 IPL champions were reduced to 4/2 at one stage, losing Yashasvi Jaiswal (4) and Jos Buttler (0), and were able to manage just 26 runs in the Powerplay.

Skipper Sanju Samson changed the complexion of the game with a blazing 60 off 32 balls. Sanju smashed three sixes in a row off leggie Rashid Khan.

Hetmyer remained unbeaten on a 26-ball 56. The knock was studded with two fours and five maximums.

Pacers Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya had bowled well as Titans made early inroads and pushed the Royals into a corner.

With 177 not looking like an imposing total to defend by any yardstick -- against a team packed with batting stars like Buttler, Jaiswal, Sanju and Devdutt Padikkal -- the best option for Shami and Pandya was to make the ball talk.

Long after Shubman Gill (45) and Pandya (28) had come together to pull the Titans out of trouble with their 59-run partnership, the skipper bowled tirelessly in tandem with Shami, whose searing pace and swing flummoxed the Royals top-order batters.

Pandya induced Jaiswal to play an absurd short with the batter opening the face of the bat to a delivery outside the off stump to give Gill catching practice in slips.

With pressure mounting in powerplay -- and with the high standards the Royals have set in those make-or-break six overs -- Buttler committed himself tentatively to a stroke he would otherwise not play.

The England while-ball skipper shuffled across his stumps to a delivery seaming in toward off stump and missed an attempted scoop over fine leg, resulting in his off stump being uprooted from the ground.

It left the pair of Padikkal and Sanju with the unenviable task of rebuilding the house from scratch. The 26 runs the Royals scored in powerplay was a testament to the nagging length Pandya and Shami bowled.

But then the rebuilding work stated in true earnest, with Sanju and Padikkal (26) involved in a 43-run partnership and then the skipper forging a 59-run stand with Riyan Parag (5). The Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel partnership then blossomed towards the business end with the West Indian doing the bulk of the scoring.

There were some anxious moments when both Jurel (18 off 10 balls) and Ashwin (10 off three balls) fell in quick succession, but Hetmyel completed the task with another massive six.

Earlier, Gill's cool demeanour in the face of adversity and Pandya's quick understanding of the situation again came to the fore as their half-century stand helped  Titans post 177/7.

South African left-handed batter David Miller (46 off 30 balls) and Abhinav Manohar (27 off 13) provided the final flourish, with a 45-run partnership that was studded with three boundaries and five maximums.