All-round Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 7 wickets at Sawai Mansingh Stadium here yesterday to stay alive in race to playoffs contention in IPL-2019.

In the chase, Ajinkya Rahane (39) and Liam Livingstone (44) took the hosts to flying start, forging a 78-run stand. Their stand made the chase look easy from the onset as Sanju Samson (48 not out) and a cameo from skipper Steve Smith (22) helped the hosts cross the live with five balls to spare.

Earlier, Varun Aaron, Oshane Thomas, Shreyas Gopal and Jaydev Unadkat displayed disciplined bowling performances to restrict SRH to 160/8.

Put in to bat, SRH lost Kane Williamson after a 28-run stand with David Warner. Manish Pandey (61) then stepped in to carry his form from the previous match to score a half-century. He was well complimented by Warner from the other end, who could only manage 37 runs. Following their dismissals, SRH registered a collapse as their middle and lower-order batsmen failed to do much with the bat.

With the victory, Royals moved a place up to sixth position with 10 points. Sunrisers (10 points) remained at fourth position even after the defeat due to their superior run-rate.

Now, three teams are on 10 points, the third being Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) become the first team to book their play-off berth.