The reverse roulette

The Sunrisers Hyderabad openers had raced to 40 in the first four overs when Shane Watson brought himself on. With no third man and no deep point, he started short and wide, and Warner happily helped himself to successive fours with a steer and an upper cut. Watson corrected himself third ball, pitching it up on a tighter line. Wanting another boundary, Warner flailed from the crease, and nicked it behind.

Moises Henriques did not get too many but he made Stuart Binny labour for no return twice. In the tenth over, Henriques pulled James Faulkner towards deep midwicket. Binny was not exactly sprinting across from deep square leg. He dived awkwardly the first time, and only helped the ball into the boundary. On the second attempt, by the time Binny sprawled on to the ground, the ball had already gone past.

Shikhar Dhawan had taken a liking to the reverse-swat, using the shot often against offspinner Deepak Hooda. Off the last ball of the 14th over, he reverse-hit a four past short third man off the same bowler. Next up was James Faulkner. Dhawan immediately tried the shot against the much quicker bowler, but had his off stump rattled after missing a length delivery.

With Royals needing an improbable 40 from two overs and only three wickets standing, Chris Morris delivered a succession of jolts to Sunrisers. Praveen Kumar started the 19th over with a length ball, and Morris deposited it just out of Eoin Morgan's reach at deep midwicket. Morgan had no chance next ball, as Morris heaved a full toss way over the fielder. Praveen tried the short ball now. Morris cranked up and pulled it over deep square leg for six more. Sunrisers just about survived this scare in the end.