There is something about Rajasthan Royals. The inaugural winners of the league and controversy go hand in hand. On Monday (April 9), they played their first game after serving the two-year ban.
In 2015, the Royals along with Chennai Super Kings were banned on corruption charges. And it took the Royals just one game to get involved in controversy. During their season-opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Ben Laughlin delivered a 7-ball over. The incident occurred when the Australian came on to bowl the 12th over.
Here is what happened during the entire over:
1st ball: No run
2nd ball: 1 run
3rd ball: No run
4th ball: 1 run
5th ball: 1 run
6th ball: Four
7th ball: 1 run
Here is a snapshot from IPL’s official website showing the 7-ball 12th over:
Sunrisers crush Royals:
Coming to the game, Sunrisers Hyderabad ruined Royals’ comeback game with a thumping nine-wicket win. For the most part of the game, it looked like an one way traffic as the hosts thoroughly dominated the game.
Sent in to bat first, the Royals kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. As a result, they could manage only 125 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs. Sanju Samson was the only notable contributor with 49.
In reply, the Hyderabad-based franchise reached the target inside 16 overs. They were off to a poor start as Wriddhiman Saha was out for just 5. However, Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson stitched together an unbeaten partnership to take their team home. Dhawan scored 77* while Williamson scored 36*.
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