IPL 2021: SunRisers Hyderabad crumble under pressure as Royal Challengers Bangalore go top of the table

What started out as a really tiring game of cricket to watch turned out to be a nail-biter as the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) edged the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) by six runs. The win meant that Virat Kohli’s men went top of the table. Batting first, RCB was restricted to a humble 149 by an excellent fielding performance by SRH. The 2016 champions seemed to be cruising and were set for a comfortable victory as captain David Warner and Manish Pandey constructed a stable partnership of 83 off 66 balls for the second wicket. Warner scored 54 off 37 deliveries and Pandey managed 38 off 39.

However, RCB bowler Shahbaz Ahmed turned the game on its head when he took three wickets in the 17th over. His bowling figures look outrageous for a T20 game, with 3-7 off two overs. Youngster Harshal Patel once again impressed as he took two wickets and conceded only 25 runs off his four overs. Pacer Mohammad Siraj also had the exact same figures. Kiwi pacer Kyle Jamieson took one wicket.

Chepauk Lives Up To Infamous Reputation

The Chepauk track is living up to its name of being a death trap for batsmen. It was not like SRH was the track’s only victim. RCB struggled to get going, and so did Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The game was like a carbon copy of the KKR vs MI game and the scorecards of both SRH and RCB bear a similar resemblance.

The RCB batsmen could not seem to get going on the slow Chepauk track, compounded by SRH’s excellent bowling plan and outstanding fielding efforts. Brilliant catches were being taken everywhere on the field by the Orange army. Glenn Maxwell was the only player who converted his start to a fairly big score. The Australian all-rounder scored 59 runs off 41 deliveries, including three maximums. Captain Virat Kohli was the only other batsman who managed to score over 30 runs but played a slow knock. Kohli scored 33 off 29 balls. Interestingly, he was sent back to the pavilion in the first ball of the 13th over, exactly when he was dismissed in the previous game against MI.

West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan were the top picks of the bowlers for the SunRisers. Holder took three wickets for 30 runs off his four overs while Rashid took two for just 18 runs off his quota. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, and T Natarajan also contributed with a wicket each. What was more impressive than the bowling itself was how SRH fielded. Brilliant catches and extraordinary saves frustrated the RCB batsmen and SRH captain David Warner also got his field positioning on point for most of the match. Despite that, RCB’s batting display will be of concern for Virat Kohli going forward.