Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by a margin of 67-runs in a one-sided clash at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium on Sunday evening.
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and decided to bat first on a batting-friendly pitch. RCB played with the same eleven as their last match, but SRH made a couple of changes as they were looking to end their run of three defeats in a row.
Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli came to open the batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Kohli flicked the first ball of the game straight to short mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith to give SRH an early advantage.
Skipper Faf du Plessis and Rajat Patidar made a remarkable recovery as they put together a second-wicket stand of 105 runs. However, Patidar missed out on a well-deserved fifty and was dismissed by Jagadeesha Suchith for a well compiled 38-ball 48.
Glenn Maxwell then joined his captain, and the pair kept scoring runs quickly to take RCB's total beyond the 150-run mark in just 17.2 overs. The duo formed a 54-run partnership before Kartik Tyagi dismissed Maxwell for 33 off 24 balls.
Dinesh Karthik walked in at 5 and powered RCB with his finishing touches with a hat-trick of sixes and a four off the final delivery to make it 25 runs from the last over, bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi. Karthik finished unbeaten on 30 off 8 as RCB posted a challenging 192/3 in 20 overs. Skipper Faf du Plessis played throughout the 20 overs and remained unbeaten on 73 off 50.
Chasing 193 against a strong RCB bowling attack was never going to be an easy task. It became more difficult when SRH skipper Kane Williamson got run out in the first over of the second innings without playing a single ball. In the same over, SRH lost their second wicket as Maxwell dismissed opener Abhishek Sharma for a three-ball duck.
After their dismissal, Rahul Tripathi took the RCB bowlers on and smashed them to every corner of the park to get his side back in the game. Tripathi forged an important fifty-run partnership with Aiden Markram. However, unlike Tripathi, Markram couldn't get going, and his struggling innings ended as he was caught in the deep, handing RCB leg spinner Wanindu Hasaranga his first wicket.
Tripathi continued to accumulate runs, but he was getting no support from the rest of his teammates. In-form Nicholas Pooran too couldn't contribute much as he perished for 19 off 14 deliveries.
Following Pooran's dismissal, the rest of the SRH wickets fell quickly as Hasaranga bundled out the rest of the batters to bag his first five-wicket haul in the IPL. Rahul Tripathi was the lone warrior for SRH. He scored 58 runs in 37 balls.
The chief destroyer for RCB: Wanindu Hasaranga, was named the player of the match for his spell of 5/18 in his quota of four overs. RCB won the game by 67 runs to grab two crucial points and strengthen their position in the top four.
Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 192/3 (20)
Faf du Plessis 73* (50), Rajat Patidar 48 (38);
Jagadeesha Suchith 2-30 (4), Kartik Tyagi 1-42 (4)
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 125/10 (19.2)
Rahul Tripathi 58 (37), Aiden Markram 21 (27);
Wanindu Hasaranga 5-18 (4), Josh Hazlewood 2-17 (4)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 67 runs