Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on Tuesday. It was captain Virat Kohli who made the significant difference between the two sides as he came up with a swashbuckling knock of 93 off just 47 balls which was studded with 11 boundaries and four smashing sixes. Earlier Cameron White and Thisara Perera setup the match beautifully and helped SRH set an imposing target.
Here we bring before you the hits and flops from the match:
HITS
Virat Kohli: Virat played a fantastic innings. He scored 11 boundaries and four sixes in his innings of 93 runs off just 47 balls and led his side really well on the field. He has shown that he has that capability to make it big as a Captain at any level.
RP Singh: Playing his first match of this season, he did reasonably well. He picked up the wicket of Akshath Reddy in his second over. Later in the innings, he picked up the wickets of Ashish Reddy and Thisara Perera. He ended his bowling spell of four overs as 3/27.
Muttiah Muralitharan: Muralitharan played a crucial role in restricting Hyderabad to a much lower total and gave just 23 runs in his four overs. His spinning wizardry came in to act when he bowled a gem of a delivery to Parthiv Patel, which kissed his off-stump and ended his innings.
Dale Steyn: Steyn was it his very best and gave away just 16 runs in his four overs, tough he failed to pick any wicket. Opening pair of Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal played a waiting game against him. He could have been used in much better way by Kumar Sangakkara as RCB had some very good-hitters down the order.
Cameron White: Cameron White played a crucial role in taking the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a competitive total of 161. His knock of 52 runs was a treat to watch as he tore apart the bowling of RCB. He picked up the wicket of AB De Villiers who was trying to charge him. He is looking in great touch and much more such knocks are expected from him in upcoming fixtures.
Thisara Perera: Perera played a cameo of 40 off 24 balls and helped White to increase the scoring rate. He has been the most consistent with the bat as well as ball. He also picked up one wicket but it was Kohli's day on Tuesday and Perera got overshadowed and ended up with the bowling figure of 1/35.
FLOPS
Amit Mishra: Mishra’s leg-spin bowling was toyed by Virat Kohli and that too in a very ruthless manner. He gave 21 runs in his first three overs but Kohli made him go for some more when he smacked 21 runs in his last over. The way Mishra was bowling against Kohli made him look like rookie. He ended his wicket-less spell of four overs by giving away 42 runs.
Ishant Sharma: Ishant got rid of the Chris Gayle in his third over and brought some sigh of relief for his captain Kumar Sangakkara. But he was thrashed by Mayank Agarwal in his first two overs for 21 runs. In his final over, he again conceded two fours but this time it was his Indian teammate Virat Kohli. He ended up giving 30 runs in 3.4 overs. He needs to improve on this aspect of touching the highs and lows of his bowling in alternate match.
Vinay Kumar: Vinay was not able to find his rhythm in the death overs which let Sunrisers Hyderabad to put that competitive total on the board. He gave away 43 runs in four overs he bowled. Though, he did end up picking up a wicket of Cameron White but he conceded three sixes and two fours in his spell. A much better performance was expected from a bowler like him especially in the death overs.
Jaydev Unadkat: He conceded just two boundaries and one six but he gave away easy ones and twos during his bowling. He needs to be more attacking and needs to avoid that juicy full toss in the middle overs. He has that ability to pick-up wickets but he hasn’t shown them till now. He needs to perform better otherwise Kohli wouldn’t mind showing him the doors in the second half of league matches.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network
