Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the opening encounter of both teams. In what has become a trend in the tournament, David Warner won the toss and invited the opposition to bat first. RCB had a great start with the debutant Devdutt Paddikal smashing a half-century. Aaron Finch ably supported him as the openers gathered 90 runs.
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But both batsmen got out and SRH made a slight comeback in the game. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers began to collect the singles which slowed down the scoring for a while. Kohli’s departure left the onus on de Villiers for a strong finish. The South African scored 51 from 30 balls that helped the team reach a respectable 163/5.
In reply, SRH lost Warner early for just 6. However, the in-form Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey shared a stand of 71 runs that kept the team in the hunt. Bairstow crossed his fifty and the chasing team needed 43 runs from the last 5 overs. It should have been an easy job from there onwards with Bairstow at the crease.
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What went wrong
Yuzvendra Chahal, who had bowled well thus far, came on to bowl the 16th over. That proved to be the turning point as he dismissed Bairstow as well as Vijay Shankar off successive deliveries. From that point onwards, panic set in and SRH lost the plot big time. They didn’t have Mitchell Marsh available to bat at his regular slot due to the ankle injury he encountered while bowling.
RCB pounced on the opportunity and the target just proved to be too far for SRH. The mistake that SRH made was that they relied too heavily on the top order. Marsh’s injury didn’t help their cause either.
But they have a world-class batsman Kane Williamson who was warming the bench in this game. They need to find a way to accomodate him in the XI. Had he been there in this chase, his experience and the calm head would have eased the nerves and he certainly would have taken his side past the line.
