All-round Royal Challengers have the measure of Sunrisers
Visitors’ attack strikes regularly to scuttle the hosts’ chase after Patidar, Kohli hit contrasting half-centuries for Bengaluru Starc available for selection: Ramandeep
oyal 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.
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 o the sixth ball of the innings.
Soon, fellow-opener Abhishek Sharma’s cameo ended, mistiming a pull o 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 o 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.
RThe rest of the innings was a formality as RCB notched up a much-needed victory.
Coming good
Earlier, Rajat Patidar’s brilliance at the top of the order, an unusually slow halfcentury by Virat Kohli, and a cameo in the nal 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 rst six overs, Patidar compensated by scoring a 20-ball half-century that included four sixes o legspinner Mayank Markande in the 11th over of the innings.
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 ve overs, mainly due to some lusty blows from Green.
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.
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)
Jacks 1 (3b), b Swapnil 7 (8b, 1x4),
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.
Kolkata Knight Riders will hope for another positive result at home to strengthen its position in the league table when it meets Punjab Kings at the Eden Gardens here on Friday.
Currently second with 10 points, KKR has a fairly good success rate, having won ve of its seven matches. This is largely because of the e¨ciency of its batting, which has been amassing scores of above 200 regularly.
KKR will be playing its fourth consecutive game at home, where it has won two and lost one in the three previous appearances.
The last match saw 443 runs being scored as the host edged out Royal Challengers Bengaluru by the narrowest of margins — one run.
The KKR top-order has been in good form with the likes of Sunil Narine (286), Phil Salt (249), skipper Shreyas Iyer (190) and Andre Russell (155) contributing. Despite a huge investment, the bowlers have not been able to reach the level expected of them even with the presence of Mitchell Starc, who was bought for a record amount of ₹24.75 crore.
For the ninth-placed Kings, the journey so far has been far from satisfactory. The team lost its last four matches in a total of six defeats in eight games. It will hope to turn things around by outshining the home side.
KKR all-rounder Ramandeep Singh dismissed injury concerns surrounding Mitchell Starc, saying the Australian left-arm pacer was available for selection. “He is available. It has got to do with his workload management. He is a legend. We can’t judge him from a few matches,” said Ramandeep.
Dhawan to miss match
Meanwhile, Punjab Kings will have to continue without captain Shikhar Dhawan, who is yet to recover fully from a shoulder injury.
“He is on the road to recovery. Hopefully, he should be t and available for the next match (against CSK),” said PBKS bowling coach Sunil Joshi.
Sam Curran will be the stand-in skipper till that time, informed Joshi.