Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers did it again by defending 147 runs to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 39th match of VIVO IPL 2018 played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field, bowlers did a great job to restrict SRH. While chasing, Kohli looked good but lost wickets, Collin de Grandhomme and Mandeep Singh tried their best but SRH bowlers did a brilliant job.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first. Tim Southee got the early breakthrough by dismissing Alex Hales for 5 runs. Shikhar Dhawan struggled for timing and was dismissed by Mohammad Siraj for 13. At the end of 6 overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad made just 38 runs.
Manish Pandey poor form continued in this IPL and was dismissed for 5 runs. Kane Williamson and Shakib AL Hasan steadied the innings with a solid partnership, taking singles, also hitting bad balls away for boundaries. The captain Kane Williamson played a captains knock reaching his half-century off 35 balls. Both Williamson and Shakib AL Hasan added 64 runs for the 4th wicket.
Umesh Yadav dismissed Kane Williamson for 56. After his dismissal, Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers did a great job to restrict and bowl out Sunrisers Hyderabad for 146.
Mohammad Siraj and Tim Southee picked 3 wickets each for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Yuzvendra Chahal also bowled well taking 1 for 25.
Chasing 147, Parthiv Patel looked in aggressive touch scoring 20 off 13 balls to give Royal Challengers Bangalore a good start. Patel was dismissed by Shakib AL Hasan. RCB captain Virat Kohli looked in brilliant with aggressive hitting. At the end of 6 overs, RCB scored 55 for 1.
Manan Vohra got for just 8 runs off 10 balls. Soon after SRH bowlers picked wickets of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali in quick succession to leave RCB at 84 for 5. Collin de Grandhomme and Mandeep Singh steadied the innings, gave RCB a chance to win.
With 19 runs required off the last 2 overs, Siddarth Kaul gave just 7 runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a brilliant 20th over giving just 6 runs. SRH won the match by 5 runs to top the group.
SRH 146 in 20 overs ( Kane Willamson 56, Shakib Al Hasan 35, Mohammed Siraj 3/25, Tim Southee 3/30) beat
RCB 141 for 6 in 20 overs ( Virat Kohli 39, Collin de Grandhomme 33, Shakib Al Hasan 2/36) by 5 runs
RCB captain Virat Kohli said: We deserve to lose this game. This has been the story of the season so far. 10-15 less runs would have been better and should have done better with the ball after the start we got. It’s not up not to our hand. We need to play positive cricket in coming matches.
Man of the match and captain Kane Williamson said: It was a tough wicket to bat on. With the ball, we struggled a little. Bhuvi and Siddarth Kaul did a great job to restrict RCB batting line up. Hope to continue that we can back them at the death overs in coming matches.
Kings XI Punjab will take on Rajasthan Royals in tomorrow’s match at Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur.