Jaipur: Abdul Samad hit a six off the final delivery, re-bowled after a no-ball call, as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) stunned Rajasthan Royals (RR) by four wickets in a dramatic Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Sunday.
Chasing a target of 215, SRH needed 17 runs off the final over bowled by Sandeep Sharma with Samad and Marco Jansen at the crease. Samad hit a six off the second ball to leave the equation to five runs from the last delivery when the drama unfolded.
Everybody thought Samad was out with Jos Buttler taking a catch near the boundary but the umpire called for a no-ball and the last delivery was re-bowled.
SRH needed four runs for a win, but Samad then smashed Sharma's delivery for a six to notch up one of the most improbable wins in the IPL, leaving RR players shell-shocked.
Number six batter Glenn Phillips (25 off 7 balls) also played his part in the turnaround of SRH's fortunes as they needed 69 off the last five overs though with eight wickets in hand.
Phillips spiced up the tall chase by hitting three consecutive sixes and a four off inexperienced pacer Kuldip Yadav in the penultimate over to raise hopes of a stunning win.
Ultimately, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal's (4/29) efforts went in vain, though at one stage it looked like a comfortable win for RR.
SRH began the run chase on a cautious note as they lacked in fireworks in the Powerplay overs at the end of which they were 52/1 with 'Impact Player' Anmolpreet Singh becoming the first victim of Chahal.
Ravichandran Ashwin (4-0-35-1) also kept things tight and the SRH batters found it difficult to get the boundaries.
At the halfway mark, SRH were 87/1, needing another 128 from the back end and asking rate nearing 13 in an over.
Abhishek Sharma (55) fell after hitting Ashwin for a six for the second time in the 13th over with the premier Indian spinner having the last laugh.
In the next over, Rahul Tripathi struck a four and two sixes to collect 19 runs from Murugan Ashwin.
Heinrich Klaasen, who hit a four and a six earlier, then gave some anxiety to the RR camp with a six and four off Chahal in the 16th over before he fell in the fifth ball of that over with Jos Buttler taking a well-judged catch at long off.
Earlier, RR piled up 214/2, thanks a crafty 95 from English opener Buttler and an unbeaten 66 from captain Sanju Samson.
After a 54-run opening stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal (35), Buttler (95 off 59 balls) stitched another 138 runs with Sanju (66 not out) in 13.3 overs to steer RR to a big total after opting to bat.
Buttler missed a well-deserved century as he got out in the penultimate over with five runs short. He hit 10 fours and four sixes during his crafty innings.
Sanju's 38-ball unbeaten knock was studded with four boundaries and five sixes.
The SRH bowlers looked clueless throughout the innings with all of them bleeding runs.
RR made a rollicking start, reaching 61/1 at the end of Powerplay, thanks to a quick-fire 35 off just 18 balls from the talented Jaiswal who continued his fine form this season to reach 1,000 IPL runs.
The youngster struck two maximums off Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-0-44-1) and Jansen (4-0-44-1) as well as five fours but fell to a soft dismissal.
Jansen extracted extra bounce from a slower off-cutter and Jaiswal simply lofted the ball on to the hands of T Natarajan.
The tempo continued as the home side were 107/1 at the halfway stage with one-down Sanju punishing the SRH bowlers and scoring his first fifty in six matches.
Sanju targeted Mayank Markande for special treatment as he struck three towering sixes off the hapless bowler in the ninth over which yielded 21 runs.
Buttler, who was relatively quiet in the early part of his innings, began to open up his arms after settling down nicely.
The Buttler-Samson duo kept the run-rate above 10 run an over all the time, reaching 150 in the 15th over.
RR added 60 runs off the last five overs.
Sanju struck two more sixes off Markande in the 16th over and then reached his third fifty in the 18th over off 33 balls.
Bhuvneshwar trapped Buttler in front of the wicket after a review.