HYDERABAD: As they say, cricket is a great leveller. When you think that you are on top of your game, it quickly brings you down.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, who were in rampaging form with four back-to-back wins and who had racked up totals over 250 for fun, suffered a 35-run loss to bottom-placed Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
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The last time these two teams met, Sunrisers had posted IPL’s record total of 287/3. RCB had their revenge on a searing hot day. The trend this season for Sunrisers has been to seal the fate of the match in the powerplay with openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma providing blistering starts.
Not here on Thursday as they collapsed, losing four wickets for 62, chasing down a par total of 206/7. The hosts ended up with 171/8 in 20 overs. For the Faf du Plessis-led side, it was their second win and the first after six straight losses.
Sunrisers had a horrible start losing Head in the first over to Will Jacks. Abhishek hit Jacks for 20 runs to get going. But Yash Dayal dismissed the left-hander for 31 off 13 balls (3×4, 2×6) in the fourth over.
Spinner Swapnil Singh struck vital blows dismissing both Aiden Markram (7) and Heinrich Klaasen (7) in the fifth over to derail the chase. While Markram missed a full toss to be adjudged lbw, Klaasen, after hitting the bowler for a six, holed out the next ball as the hosts were reduced to 56/4 in five overs.
When Karn Sharma bowled Nitish Kumar Reddy in the eighth over and dismissed Abdul Samad in the 10th, the writing was on the wall. Though Pat Cummins entertained the crowd with a 15-ball 31 (3×6), it was all over. Shahbaz Ahmed delayed the inevitable with an unbeaten 40.
Earlier, Du Plessis (25) and Kohli added 48 runs in 23 deliveries for the opening stand before the former was dismissed by Natarajan. Kohli took them to 61/1 in powerplay. With Kohli opting to play the anchor, the run rate dipped.
Jacks was bowled by Mayank Markande, which brought Rajat Patidar to the crease. He hit Markande for four consecutive sixes in the 11th over and scored 50 of the 65 runs he added with Kohli.
Patidar smashed two boundaries and five sixes on his way to a 20-ball 50 while Kohli, who struggled to find the fence, scored a 43-ball 51.
