IPL 2018, SRH vs RCB: Hits and Misses
In a must-win game, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli called correctly at the toss and opted to field first. Hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad didn’t get off to the best of starts as they were reduced 48/3. But a very good resurrecting stand between skipper Kane Williamson and Shakib Al Hasan helped SRH get back on track.
Williamson scored an excellent 56 and Shakib made 35 but both of them fell early in the death and hence, the hosts couldn’t get the finish they wanted. SRH lost 7 wickets and scored 41 runs in the last five overs as they managed to reach 146 in their 20 overs. Barring Umesh Yadav who went at 9 runs an over, the RCB bowling was very good.
In their chase, RCB got off to a fast start as Parthiv Patel scored a quick 20. Virat Kohli then came in and looked in very good touch. But, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali were dismissed in consecutive overs and RCB were reeling at 84/5.
However, Colin de Grandhomme and Mandeep Singh kept RCB in the hunt. But some exceptional death bowling from SRH (Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddarth Kaul) helped the hosts climb to the top spot in the points table with 16 points.
#5 Miss: SRH openers
With David Warner not a part of this IPL, SRH were dealt a big blow as the Australian opener has been their best batsman in the last few years. Despite calling Alex Hales as a replacement, SRH went in with Billy Stanlake as their fourth overseas pacer.
But an injury to the tall Aussie pacer helped Hales make his debut and he did well in the two games he played. Shikhar Dhawan, on the other hand, started well but hasn’t been able to sustain that form.
Hales and Dhawan had opening stands of 17 and 76 in the two games they opened together. However, both the openers failed to get going in this game. On a slowish pitch, Hales was undone with a cross-seamer from Tim Southee who castled the England opener for just 5.
On the other hand, Dhawan struggled his way through to 13 as he played 19 deliveries before falling to the pull shot. Mohammed Siraj tested the 32-year-old opener with a short ball and Dhawan couldn’t control the pull shot and holed out to deep square-leg where Southee took an easy catch.
It was a disappointing outing for both openers as they combined to score just 18 runs.