BANGALORE LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY
Royal Challengers Bangalore put themselves in contention for a spot in the Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs but not before huffing and puffing their way to a 14-run win over table-toppers and alreadyqualified Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
In a must-win match for the hosts, Bangalore, who went in with an unchanged side, posted 218 thanks to some big hitting from AB de Villiers, Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme and tailender Sarfaraz Khan.
Their bowlers then struggled against Hyderabad but managed to restrict them to 204 for 3 after Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson (81 from 42 balls, 7x4, 5x6) and Manish Pandey (62 not out, 7x4, 2x6) had threatened to take the match away from Bangalore with a 135-run partnership.
Earlier, put into bat, De Villiers (69 from 39 balls; 12x4, 1x6) and Moeen (65 from 34; 2x4, 6x6) put on a 107-run third wicket stand to resurrect RCB’s innings which fell apart after the early loss of the opening duo of Parthiv Patel (1) and skipper Virat Kohli (12).
Put in to bat, Parthiv failed to take advantage of the dropped chance off the very first ball and departed off the final ball off Sandeep Sharma, caught by Siddharth Kaul at third man.
Kohli followed his opening partner soon after adding 32 runs with de Villiers, as the India skipper’s struggle with the spinners continued in this edition of the IPL. The right-hander attempted to slog Rashid Khan’s fuller length delivery hoping for a googly only to find his stumps re-arranged.
Struggling at 32 for 2, de Villiers and Moeen changed the complexion of the innings in no time, with both batsmen trying to outscore each other as it started raining boundaries at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
De Villiers started with two consecutive boundaries off Shakib Al Hasan before sending the other Hyderabad bowlers on a leather hunt, before Moeen joined the party by welcoming rookie pacer Basil Thampi, who replaced Bhuneshwar Kumar, with two consecutive sixes.
Thampi proved to be the most expensive bowler in IPL history with figures of 4-0-70-0.
In no time, the South African veteran brought up his half century in mere 32 balls, when he pulled medium pacer Kaul for a boundary before Moeen, who was dropped on 23 by Shikhar Dhawan off Sandeep, turned on the heat by meting out some special treatment to Thampi.
The English southpaw mercilessly smacked Thampi for a boundary to bring up his maiden IPL half century off just 25 balls before Afghan leg-spinner Rashid came back to break the partnership. —