SUN GOES DOWN
Spectacular collapse hands match to Kohli’s RCB
Dubai, Sept. 21: Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs in their IPL match here on Monday.
Chasing a target of
164, the SRH were all out for 153 in 19.4 overs, despite a 43-ball
61 from in-form England wicketkeeperbatsman Jonny Bairstow.
Earlier, Devdutt Padikkal’s impressive
56 on debut and a typical explosive half century by AB de Villiers
(51) helped Royal Challengers Bangalore post 163 for 5 after they were sent in to bat.
The class and calmness Padikkal (56 off
42, 8 fours) showed in his first high-profile game was remarkable, so much so that Australian limited overs captain Aaron Finch (29 off 27) was happy to play second fiddle at the other end.
Sunrisers pulled things back in the middle overs following a
90-run opening stand between Padikkal and Finch. De Villiers (51 off 30) came up with crucial boundary hits towards the end to take the team score past 160.
The 20-year-old Padikkal, possessing a near perfect balance in the crease, played all around the ground, playing the pull and aerial cover drive with equal confidence.
Padikkal got going with three boundaries in an over off left-arm pacer T. Natarajan. The left-handed opener brought up his halfcentury with a slog sweep over the fielder at deep square leg.
With the openers looking good, RCB cruised to 86 for no loss in 10 overs. However, both Padikkal and Finch fell off successive balls and that put the brakes on the scoring rate with RCB collecting only 30 runs from the next five overs.
Skipper Virat Kohli departed after scoring 14 off 13, leaving de Villiers to provide the final flourish. The South African star delivered once again, smashing his 200th six for RCB in the process.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Devdutt Padikkal b Shankar
56, Aaron Finch lbw b Abhishek 29, Virat Kohli c Rashid b Natarajan 14, AB de Villiers (run out) 51, Shivam Dube (run out) 7, J.R. Philippe (not out) 1. Extras: (lb-1 nb-2
w-2) 5. Total: (for 5 wkts, in 20 overs) 163.
FoW: 1-90, 2-90, 3-123, 4-162,
5-163
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar
4-0-25-0, Sandeep Sharma 4
0-36-0, T Natarajan 4-0-34-1, Mitchell Marsh 0.4-0-6-0, Vijay