Royal Challengers Bengaluru delivered a stunning all-round performance to upset crowd-favourite Sunrisers Hyderabad, registering a 35-run victory in their IPL league match, at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on Thursday.
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The visitors’ performance also served a reminder that the SRH batting line-up can be brittle in the face of accurate, if not unplayable, bowling and also raised hopes for other teams as the championship heads for the business-end.
Chasing 207 for victory, the home team was straightaway under pressure with Will Jacks inducing a poor stroke from the dangerous Impact Player Travis Head off the sixth ball of the innings.
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Soon, fellow-opener Abhishek Sharma’s cameo ended, mistiming a pull off Yash Dayal only to be caught behind, before SRH’s Impact Player, the left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, trapped Aiden Markram leg-before with a low full-toss.
RCB was back on top again when Heinrich Klaasen, who had hit the previous ball from Swapnil for a six over long-on, perished trying to repeat the stroke off the next.
Later, leg-spinner Karn Sharma had Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled, missing a reverse sweep, and then took a smart return catch to send back the dangerous Abdul Samad to reduce SRH to 85 for six in 9.1 overs. The rest of the innings was a formality as RCB notched up a much-needed victory.
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Coming good
Earlier, Rajat Patidar’s brilliance at the top of the order, an unusually slow half-century by Virat Kohli, and a cameo in the final overs by Cameron Green helped Royal Challengers score a challenging 206 for seven.
Though Kohli struggled to get going after all his boundaries came within the first six overs, Patidar compensated by scoring a 20-ball half-century that included four sixes off leg-spinner Mayank Markande in the 11th over of the innings.
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Jaydev Unadkat was the pick of the SRH bowlers with a three-wicket haul, including the prize scalps of Patidar and Kohli. RCB scored 64 runs from the last five overs, mainly due to some lusty blows from Green.
SCOREBOARDx
ROYAL CHALLENGERS
Virat Kohli c Samad b Unadkat 51 (43b, 4x4, 1x6), Faf du Plessis c Markram b Natarajan 25 (12b, 3x4, 1x6), Will Jacks b Markande 6 (9b), Rajat Patidar c Samad b Unadkat 50 (20b, 2x4, 5x6), Cameron Green (not out) 37 (20b, 5x4), Mahipal Lomror c Cummins b Unadkat 7 (4b, 1x4), Dinesh Karthik c Samad b Cummins 11 (6b, 2x4), Swapnil Singh (Impact Player in place of Patidar) c Abhishek b Natarajan 12 (6b, 1x4, 1x6); Extras (lb-2, w-5): 7; Total (for seven wkts. in 20 overs): 206.
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FALL OF WICKETS
1-48 (du Plessis, 3.5 overs), 2-65 (Jacks, 6.6), 3-130 (Patidar, 12.4), 4-140 (Kohli, 14.5), 5-161 (Lomror, 16.3), 6-193 (Karthik, 18.5), 7-206 (Swapnil, 19.6).
SUNRISERS BOWLING
Abhishek 1-0-10-0, Bhuvneshwar 1-0-14-0, Cummins 4-0-55-1, Natarajan 4-0-39-2, Shahbaz 3-0-14-0, Markande 3-0-42-1, Unadkat 4-0-30-3.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD
Abhishek Sharma c Karthik b Yash Dayal 31 (13b, 3x4, 2x6), Travis Head (Impact player in place of Natarajan) c Karn b Jacks 1 (3b), Aiden Markram lbw b Swapnil 7 (8b, 1x4), Nitish Reddy b Karn 13 (13b, 1x6), Heinrich Klaasen c Green b Swapnil 7 (3b, 1x6), Shahbaz Ahmed (not out) 40 (37b, 1x4, 1x6), Abdul Samad c & b Karn 10 (6b, 1x6), Pat Cummins c Siraj b Green 31 (15b, 1x4, 3x6), Bhuvneshwar Kumar c Siraj b Green 13 (13b, 3x4), Jaydev Unadkat (not out) 8 (10b, 1x4); Extras (lb-1, nb-1, w-8): 10; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 171.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-3 (Head, 0.6), 2-37 (Abhishek, 3.4), 3-41 (Markram, 4.2), 4-56 (Klaasen, 4.6), 5-69 (Nitish, 7.2), 6-85 (Samad, 9.1), 7-124 (Cummins, 13.1), 8-141 (Bhuvneshwar, 15.5).
RCB BOWLING
Jacks 2-0-23-1, Siraj 4-0-20-0, Yash Dayal 3-0-18-1, Swapnil 3-0-40-2, Karn 4-0-29-2, Ferguson 2-0-28-0, Green 2-0-12-2.
Toss: RCB; PoM: Patidar.
Royal Challengers won by 35 runs.