RCB Crush SRH by 6 Wickets in Stunning 200+ Chase at Chinnaswamy
Royal Challengers Bengaluru started their season in style, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 6 wickets. They chased a big 200+ score easily, finishing the match with 26 balls left. Jacob Duffy gave a strong start with the ball, and the bowlers did well at the end. In the chase, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, and Virat Kohli played excellent knocks, making the win look easy and thrilling the Bengaluru crowd.
Barring a couple of moments, everything went in RCB's favour right from the beginning. Rajat Patidar flipped the coin in his favour and opted to bowl first, which was a no-brainer when you come to Chinnaswamy. Duffy, playing his first IPL game, picked up three wickets inside the powerplay, sending the likes of dangerous Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy back to the pavilion.
Stand-in skipper Ishan Kishan then took the responsibility and stepped up big time, continuing his dream run in the T20s with a sublime 80 off 38 balls, slamming 8 fours and 5 sixes. He was supported by Heinrich Klaasen, who played a perfect second fiddle to his leader, scoring 31 off 22 balls. The 97-run fourth-wicket stand gave the Orange Army a base for a comeback, but with Phil Salt pulling off a sensational catch, RCB bounced back into the contest.
RCB cruise past Sunrisers Hyderabad in a dominant 200+ run chase
SRH lost wickets at one end, while Aniket Verma continued from where he left off in the last season to finish with a superlative cameo, hitting 43 off just 18 balls. Eventually, SRH managed to breach the 200-run mark for the loss of 9 wickets. Duffy bowled his full quota in one go and finished with 3/22. Romario Shepherd, too, picked up 3 wickets, but leaked 54 runs. A wicket each for Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to cap off a fairly good bowling performance on a batting paradise. Padikkal and Salt took 6 catches in total and added great value on the field.
RCB lost Phil Salt early on in the run chase, but the impact player, Padikkal, raced away to his fifty off just 21 balls, showing off his high-class at his home ground. DDP smacked 61 off 26 balls, with 7 fours and 4 sixes, and each of those shots was stylish. The southpaw and VK added a 100-plus partnership to lay the platform before Rajat Patidar (31 off 12) came in and feasted on the lacklustre SRH bowling. Kohli took the back seat again and held an end up.
David Payne dismissed Patidar and Jitesh Sharma in consecutive deliveries, but that only delayed the inevitable as Kohli (69* off 38) soon reached his 64th IPL half-century and then finished things off with four successive boundaries off Harshal Patel. Tim David also enjoyed a short stint with the bat, but it was all Kohli with his quality stroke play towards the end and eventually shared a flying kiss with his better half, Anushka Sharma, after the franchise sealed the fastest ever 200+ run chase in the tournament.
