IPL 2022: Samson's half-century, cameos from Padikkal, Hetmyer and Buttler guide Rajasthan to 210/6

Pune (Maharashtra)[India], March 29 (ANI): Captain Sanju Samson's blistering half-century and cameos from Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer and Jos Buttler guided Rajasthan Royals to 210/6 in 20 overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad here at the MCA stadium.
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bowl first. Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the wicket of wicket-keeper batter Jos Buttler in the fifth ball but unfortunately, he overstepped and due to no-ball the decision was overturned.
Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal batted consciously in the beginning and then in the fourth over the English wicket-keeper batter struck 21 runs to Umran Malik in his very first over to take the team's total to 34 in four overs with the loss of any wicket.
In the very next over Washington Sundar was introduced into the attack and he too went for 18 as Rajasthan reached the 50-run mark in the fifth over. At the end of the powerplay, the inaugural champions had scored 58 runs with the loss of any wicket.
Medium-pacer Romario Shepherd was once again introduced into the attack dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal caught by Aiden Markram for 20 as the Guyanese got his maiden IPL wicket to leave Rajasthan at 58/1.
Captain Sanju Samson walked into bat and he started off aggressively hitting boundaries and sixes. In the ninth over Umran Malik was once again introduced into the attack and the Kashmiri pacer got the prized scalp of Buttler for 35 off 27 balls caught behind by wicket-keeper Nicholas Pooran.

Sanju Samson was hardly affected by the dismissal of Buttler and he kept on scoring runs by hitting boundaries and sixes. Devdutt Padikkal too gave his captain good support from the other end to take the team's total beyond the triple-figure mark in 11 overs.
The 73-run partnership was finally broken when pacer Umran Malik cleaned up Padikkal for 41 off 29 balls to take his second wicket of the match and leave Rajasthan at 148/3.
Samson notched up his half-century in just 25 balls to take Rajasthan Royals total beyond the 150-run mark in 15.3 overs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar finally got the prized scalp of Samson dismissing him for 55 from 27 balls caught by Abdul Samad. The fall of the captain's wicket did not put brakes on the scoring of Rajasthan Royals as Shimron Hetmyer batted brilliantly to take his team's total beyond the 200-run mark.
Hetmyer was dismissed for 32 from 13 balls as T Natarajan cleaned him up and he also dismissed Riyan Parag for 14 in the 20th over as Rajasthan set Hyderabad a target of 211.
Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 210/6 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 55, Devdutt Padikkal 41; Umran Malik 2/39) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (ANI)