Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are right in the hunt for the playoff spots in this IPL even as their star player Virat Kohli’s struggles refuse to go away. Despite Kohli departing for another golden duck, his 3rd of the season, RCB put up an imposing 192 for 3 from their 20 overs and then restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to just 125 bowling them out in 19.2 overs.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Bangalore got off to the worst possible start as Virat Kohli was dismissed off the first ball yet again. However, skipper Faf du Plessis and Rajat Patidar put on an impressive 105 runs partnership to get RCB back on track. Once Patidar was dismissed, Maxwell joined Faf and put on a 50 runs partnership to get RCB towards a sizeable total.
Just when SRH looked to be clawing back into the game with some tight overs and Maxwell’s wicket, Dinesh Karthik stepped into the arena to push RCB to a huge total with a hugely impressive 30 off 8 balls, including 22 from the last 4 balls of the innings bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi. For Hyderabad, uncapped Indian bowler J Suchith was the only standout bowler as he bowled his 4 overs for just 30 runs taking the wickets of Virat Kohli and the impressive Rajat Patidar.
In response, SRH’s chase got off to the worst of starts as they lost their captain Kane Williamson for a duck without facing a ball as he was run out to a direct hit from Shahbaz Ahmed. Before they could recover, they lost their other opener also for a duck as he was bowled by Glenn Maxwell.
The middle order of Rahul Tripathi, Aidan Markram, and Nicholas Pooran tried to keep SRH in the game, with Tripathi being particularly impressive yet again scoring 58 off just 37 balls but then Hasaranga took over the game as he ripped through the SRH middle and lower order taking 5 wickets for just 18 runs in his 4 overs.
The result keeps RCB in the 4th spot and 4 points above SRH in the 6th spot who do have a game in hand. The huge margin of the victory also did a world of good to the net run rate (NRR) of RCB even though it is still the worst NRR among the top 6. However, one win from their next 2 games will almost certainly guarantee them a place in the playoffs.
RCB next faces a struggling Punjab Kings on Friday, while SRH will lock horns with 8th placed Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday.
