Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) gave a massive boost to their Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs chances with a thumping win over Sunrisers Hyderabad. RCB beat SRH by a gigantic margin of 67 runs to move to third spot with two crucial points and improve their net run rate (NRR) considerably. Skipper Faf du Plessis and spinner Wanindu Hasaranga turned out to be the stars RCB needed to turn things around.
First-over ducks
The run chase got off to a pathetic start. RCB skipper handed the ball to Glenn Maxwell. On the first delivery, Kane Williamson got run out for a diamond duck. On the fifth delivery of the over Abhishek Sharma missed the line of the ball and got out lbw for a three-ball duck.
Tripathi-Markram’s damage control
Chasing a target of 193, SRH did not attack enough in the powerplay overs as they were in damage control mode.
Rahul Tripathi hit a few big shots whereas Aiden Markram took his time to get settled. In the powerplay overs, they had 39/2 on the board. In the eighth over, Tripathi got a second chance after Josh Hazlewood dropped his catch off Harshal Patel’s delivery. In the next over, Markram succumbed to dot ball pressure in the big run chase and lost his wicket to Wanindu Hasaranga. The Proteas batter scored 21 runs from 27 deliveries.
Tripathi scores big, others fail
Tripathi was joined by Nicholas Pooran in the middle. The two batters got a few boundaries and kept the run chase alive. The in-form Pooran could not continue and got out to Hasaranga in the 13th over. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 19 runs from 14 deliveries. In the 14th over, Tripathi hit a six to reach his fifty from 32 deliveries.
Tripathi did not have enough support from the other end to keep the run chase going. Jagadeesha Suchith became Sri Lankan spinner’s third victim of the day.
In the 16th over, SRH suffered a batting collapse. The first casualty was Tripathi. Hazlewood got the better of the uncapped batter. He scored 58 runs from 37 deliveries including six fours and a couple of sixes. Next ball, Kartik Tyagi got out for a golden duck.
4 wickets, no runs
Hasaranga joined the party as well. Shashank Singh and Umran Malik surrendered against Hasaranga as he became the second bowler to take a fifer in IPL 2022. This is also his maiden fifer in IPL. SRH lost four wickets without adding a run to the score.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Fazalhaq Farooqi delayed the inevitable for a few overs. In the last over, Bhuvneshwar went for a big shot but got caught in the deep by the skipper. SRH got all out for 125 with four balls to go in the innings as they lost the match by 67 runs which massively hurt their NRR.
Kohli stunned again
Virat Kohli registered his third golden duck of IPL 2022. Kohli got out off a non-threatening delivery from left-arm spinner Suchith off the first ball of the innings.
Faf hits fifty, Patidar misses
Despite the early wicket RCB did not go into over-defensive mode. Du Plessis and Rajat Patidar targetted Kartik Tyagi in the last over of powerplay overs. After the powerplay overs, RCB had 47/1 on the board.
The former Proteas skipper went ballistic against Umran Malik, hitting him for three fours and a six. Du Plessis got to his half-century from 34 deliveries in the 12th over. Patidar missed his half-century by just two runs. Suchith got his wicket in the 13th over. He took 38 deliveries to score 48 runs. His innings included four fours and two sixes.
Maxwell cameo
Just before the slog overs, Maxwell joined Faf in the middle and attacked the bowlers. Maxwell contributed with a crucial cameo of 21-ball 31. The Aussie hard-hitting batter hit two fours and three sixes during his short stay at the crease.
Karthik’s brutal finish
Coming to bat with just 10 balls remaining in the innings, Dinesh Karthik did what he does best. After playing two dot balls, Karthik hit a six off the last ball of penultimate over. In the last over, he taught on-debut Afghanistan pacer a lesson. The veteran finisher hit the left-arm pacer for three sixes and a four in the last over to help RCB post 192/3 on the board. Karthik scored 30 runs from just eight deliveries. On the other end, Du Plessis scored 73 runs from 50 balls including eight fours and two sixes.
