After losing their first 2 games, and being dismissed by everyone as contenders for this year’s IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad have fought back in some fashion winning 5 games in a row. Their latest triumph was an absolute annihilation of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as they swatted them away winning with 9 wickets with 12 overs to spare.
Having won the toss and put RCB into bat, Hyderabad were all over them like a rash. The second over of the innings delivered by Marco Jensen accounted for RCB skipper Faf du Plessis, Indian legend Virat Kohli, and Anuj Rawat, and there was no coming back for Bangalore. RCB has often relied on Virat Kohli over the years, but this year, he is turning out to be a liability recording his second successive golden duck. Glenn Maxwell tried to counter-attack but he was soon picked up by Natarajan.
RCB’s regular problem solver this season, Dinesh Karthik, was also dismissed for a duck today as wicket-keeper Pooran snapped him up off the bowling of Suchith. Eventually, the mighty RCB batting lineup could only put up 68 on the board and it was never going to be enough.
The Chase
Chasing 69 for the win was always going to be easy, but Abhishek Sharma, the star opener for Hyderabad this season, made sure there were no hiccups. Along with skipper Kane Williamson, he put on 64 for the opening wicket scoring 47 off 28 balls. When eventually Harshal Patel got Abishek out with SRH needing just 5 to win, it was already too late, and Williamson and Rahul Tripathi knocked off the remaining runs easily for a huge win for Hyderabad.
Bangalore next face Jos Buttler powered Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday, while Sunrisers Hyderabad will try to continue their winning run against table-toppers Gujarat Titans on Wednesday.