RCB’s opening act of valor drowned by an unfortunate collapse as SRH pocket crucial win

Things didn’t go as planned for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru as the Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to get the upper hand in what was a highly oscillating run chase at Ekana Stadium. The defeat to SRH also proved to be a dampener in terms of the points table as RCB slid down to third for the time being.

Winning the toss, Jitesh Sharma, RCB's skipper on the day with Rajat Patidar nursing an injury and playing as an impact player, opted to field first. Despite a strong start by Abhishek Sharma (34) and Travis Head (17), RCB managed to fight back through Lungi Ngidi and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Ngidi removed Sharma while it was Bhuvi who saw the back of the Aussie opener.

Ishan Kishan’s arrival in the center changed the game for SRH as the hard-hitting southpaw led the attack. With a 48-ball-94, Kishan’s dynamics changed the game. He had help from the likes of Heinrich Klaasen (24), Aniket Verma (26) and Pat Cummins (13*). At the end of 20 overs, SRH posted 231/6, a total that would have needed a historic chase by RCB to secure a win.

They got off to a fine start, despite a couple of lucky escapes for both Virat Kohli and Phil Salt. Kohli’s early aggression saw him piling up 43 off 24, rocking seven fours and a six. Salt, on the contrary, was relatively sedate early on but soon got into the act of domination, playing the perfect complement to Virat Kohli’s aggression.

The duo added 80 runs for the opening stand before Harsh Dubey could finally get the better of Virat Kohli. The departure of Virat activated the beast mode of Salt and what followed thereafter was the English opener going berserk. Despite Mayank Agarwal’s (11) limited show at the other end, Salt knew no relent. He clubbed 62 runs from just 32 balls, hammering four fours and five sixes.

Despite a couple of quick wickets that saw RCB lose Mayank Agarwal and Phil Salt, they managed to steady the ship, thanks to Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma. Jitesh Sharma (24) looked in great touch while Patidar had a slow start to proceedings only to keep the anchor in place with a calm-headed 18. However, things went downtown for RCB when Eshan Malinga managed to catch Patidar short of his crease.

An unfortunate collapse saw RCB lose their last seven wickets for just 16 runs, allowing SRH to walk away with a staggering win by 42 runs. The injury of Tim David who pulled his hamstring while fielding didn’t make RCB’s chase any easier at all.

RCB will be back in action on May 27th when they play their final group stage fixture against LSG.