[Watch] Fazalhaq Farooqi cleans Jos Buttler with a peach in SRH vs RR in IPL 2023

Fazalhaq Farooqi provided the first breakthrough for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by dismissing Jos Buttler in their opening IPL 2023 game against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday, April 2.

The incident took place in the sixth over when Farooqi bowled back-of-a-length delivery on the stumps and Buttler missed it completely. The ball nipped back and clipped the top of the off-stump.

Watch Jos Buttler's wicket below:

With the dismissal, SRH broke the 85-run partnership between Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal for the first wicket.

Buttler, though, slammed 54 runs off just 22 balls at a strike rate of 245.45, including three sixes and seven fours.

The right-hander will look for another breakthrough season after scoring 863 runs in 17 games at a strike rate of 149.05, which included four centuries. RR finished as the runners-up last season.

Meanwhile, Farooqi will look to continue to impress in the IPL. The Afghanistan-based left-arm pacer was retained for Rs 50 lakh by SRH for IPL 2023.

The 22-year-old scalped two wickets in three IPL games last year. Overall, he has scalped 57 wickets in 50 T20s at an economy rate of 6.52.

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SRH win the toss, opt to bowl

Sunrisers Hyderabad stand-in captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the toss and opted to field against the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday. The franchise picked Farooqi, Harry Brook, Adil Rashid and Glenn Phillips as their four overseas players.

Meanwhile, Sanju Samson and Co. opted for Buttler, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer and Jason Holder among foreign players.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Harry Brook, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips (wicketkeeper), Umran Malik, Adil Rashid, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (captain), T Natarajan, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Rajasthan Royals Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper & captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder, Trent Boult, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Click here to follow SRH vs RR live score.