The 52nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) rolled out to be yet another last-ball thriller and saw a bizarre turnaround of events. The match witnessed SRH chasing 41 runs off the final two overs and winning the contest by four wickets.
Although Abhishek Sharma (55) top-scored for the Hyderabad-based team with a brilliant fifty in the clash, the standout and match-winning performance for the visiting side came from Glenn Phillips, who contributed quickfire 25 off just seven deliveries and brought down the game to 19 needed off eight balls before getting dismissed on the fifth delivery off the penultimate over.
Despite the valiant efforts from Phillips, the game went down to the wire, with five needed off one delivery. While SRH’s power hitter Abdul Samad was on strike on the final ball, the white leather was in the hands of experienced Sandeep Sharma, who had performed brilliantly in death bowling this year. However, when it almost seemed that Sandeep pulled off yet another win for his team by dismissing Samad, his delivery turned out to be a no-ball. The overstepping by Sandeep further resulted in SRH requiring four runs and eventually went on to cost RR the game as Samad smashed him for a six on the extra and legal delivery to seal the win for Hyderabad.
Phillips was adjudged ‘Player of the Match’ for his under-pressure knock. Following the win, the SRH batter spoke about his state of mind during the last over drama to Jio Cinema and expressed his shock.
“Oh, my goodness! When that went off, I had a towel in mind and I think buried my face in it and said ‘not another one’. When that siren went off, everybody went absolutely nuts,” said Phillips.
“It was obviously a bit of commotion as we had to figure out whether they ran two or we needed 4 off the last ball. At the end of the day, I was like ‘cricket is going to be what cricket is going to be’. If the next ball goes out of the park, that’s what it was meant to be. You sometimes need a little bit of luck in cricket,” he added.
