IPL: RCB breaks chain of defeats; smashes in-form SRH

Hyderabad: The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who were reeling under continuous defeats, smashed the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for 35 runs on Thursday at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday. Captain of RCB, who made their second win from 9 matches in the Indian Premier League 2024 on the day, Faf du Plessis, had said ahead of the match that they wanted to put in-form SRH under scoreboard pressure. RCB executed the strategy well by scoring 200 plus and taking early wickets to win the match, IANS reported.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru rode on contrasting half-centuries by Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar and a brilliant all-round performance by Cameron Green, who scored an unbeaten 37 and claimed 2-12 to hand Sunrisers Hyderabad a 35-run defeat and registered their first win after six successive defeats in IPL 2024.

Leg-spinner Karn Sharma (2-29) and Swapnil Singh (2-40) too claimed a double each on top of a superb bowling effort as SRH were restricted to 171/8 in 20 overs after a 37-ball fifty by Kohli and a blazing 19-ball half-century by Patidar propelled them to a challenging 206/7 after du Plessis chose to bat first on winning the toss.

Considering that SRH has scored two of the biggest totals this season, it was a chasable target for them, but they failed to gain any momentum, slumped to their third defeat of IPL, and remained in third position. RCB have now won their second match but remain at the bottom.

Sunrisers Hyderabad virtually lost the match in the Power-play as they suffered four setbacks -- none more debilitating than the wicket of opener Travis Head for one run in the first over.

Du Plessis, who had boldly decided to bat first against an in-form SRH, continued with his fearless approach by opening the bowling with off-spinner Will Jacks. The move paid off as the 25-year-old Englishman struck gold on the last ball of the opening over when Head, who came in as an Impact Substitute, tried to hit him out of the park only to see the ball spin away and the top edge going straight to Karn Sharma on the off-side.

Fellow opener Abhishek Sharma, who has a strike rate of 200-plus just like Travis Head, hammered a 13-ball 31 studded with three boundaries and two sixes before he fell to Yash Dayal, attempting a pull but mishitting it and lobbing a slice in the air for keeper Dinesh Karthik to pouch a skier.

It became 41/3 in the fifth over when Markram completely missed a Swapnil Singh delivery to be trapped LBW for seven. And when a few deliveries later, Klassen, after hitting Swapnil for a six, was out for seven off 3 balls, SRH slumped to 56/4 in the fifth over, and their chase of 207 was in disarray. They ended the Power-play at 62/4, as compared to RCB's 61/1, but the three extra wickets proved a huge stumbling block.

The dangerous Nitish Kumar Reddy was castled by Karn Sharma, playing an ugly switch hit despite the difficult situation his team was in as SRH slumped to 69/5. Abdul Samad (10), who greeted Lockie Ferguson with a swat over long-on off his first delivery, chipped back to Karn, totally foxed by the leg spinner as he jumped out even before the ball was released.

Pat Cummins raised SRH hopes by hammering Swapnil Singh for back-to-back sixes in the 11th over and blasted Karn Sharma for a four and six off successive deliveries in the next over, fell to fellow Aussie Cameron Green, trying to hit a short, wide delivery to Mohd Siraj at short third man, beaten by lack of pace in the delivery.

He blazed to 31 off 15 balls, hitting one four and three sixes. SRH were 124/7, and the writing was clear on the wall. Green claimed one more wicket, sending back Bhuvneshwar Singh (13) as the run rate kept rising and SRH kept losing wickets.

Earlier, Patidar hammered a blazing fifty, his second in successive matches, and Kohli scored his fourth half-century at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium as RCB recovered from a decelerating scoring rate after the Power-play to post a big total.

Kohli scored his fifty off 37 balls while Patidar hammered his half-century off just 19 balls as RCB posted another 200-plus score after skipper Faf du Plessis opted to bat first on a dual-paced pitch on which the slower one was quite effective.

Patidar blasted four sixes in an over off Mayank Markande to shore up the RCB scoring rate after Kohli struggled to break free. Jaydev Unadkat applied the brakes on the free-scoring RCB innings by claiming the key wickets of Patidar, Kohli and Mahipal Lomror for a fine haul of 3-30 off four overs in his 100th outing in IPL.

Earlier, skipper du Plessis (25) struck Bhuvneshwar Kumar for three boundaries in the second over, the pick of them being a four crashed through the covers off a fullish delivery outside the off stump. In the next over, he welcomed Pat Cummins with a superb six, scooping behind a delivery picked from around off-stump and planting him over the leg-side for the first six of the match. But the introduction of T. Natarajan brought his downfall when he holed out near the deep cover boundary, trying to maintain the RCB scoring tempo in Power-play.

RCB raced to 61/1 in Power-play, Will Jacks was out for six after he played all over a slower one from spinner Mayank Markande to make it 65/2. Though Kohli's strike rate went down, Patidar made for that with some brilliant strokes. Kohli, who started with a four off Abhishek Sharma's first delivery, struck back-to-back fours off Pat Cummins and struck a four and six off Natarajan in between singles. He went on to complete a slow half-century off 37 deliveries, hitting four boundaries and one six. This was his fourth successive half-century at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium.

Patidar more than made up for the slow going from Kohli with a blazing half-century off 19 deliveries. The highlight of Patidar's sensational knock was the four sixes he blasted off successive deliveries against Markande, lofting, clobbering and pulling the leg-spinner as the over cost SRH 27 runs.

Kohli and Patidar raised 65 runs for the third wicket partnership, with the latter scoring the bulk of the time. The half-century of their partnership came in 23 balls, with Patidar scoring 45 of them.

However, SRH pulled things back a bit after Patidar fell by the sword, trying to play another big one, but managed to flick the slow full toss from Jaydev Unadkat into the hands of Abdul Samad at deep square leg. Patidar's 20-ball 50 was studded with two boundaries and five maximums.

Kohli completed his half-century off 37 balls, but Unadkat got him in the next over, getting him to hole out to Samad as the former RCB skipper failed to break free from the shackles. Mahipal Lomror was out cheaply, but Cameron Green played a fine cameo and, with the help of Dinesh Karthik (11 off 6), helped RCB reach a defendable total. Swapnil Singh struck a boundary and a six off the first two balls of the final over to help them cross the 200-run mark.