Why Sunrisers failed to rise to the Royal Challenge from Bangalore

By K.R. Nayar

Royal Challengers Bangalore versus Sunrisers Hyderabad was another well contest match. Read my c0mment in full that appeared in Gulf News

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s performance resembled the South African team in their first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) against Royal Challengers Bangalore. They choked when sailing towards victory after restricting the mighty Bangalore batting to 163 for 5, and lost by ten runs.

It was nothing but hara-kiri as Hyderabad crashed from 121 for 2 to 153 runs. They did everything right after Bangalore’s 20-year-old Devdutt Padikkal surprised them with a brilliant half-century knock. This Kerala-born Karnataka Ranji Trophy cricketer made even the experienced Aaron Finch play second fiddle to him.

Bangalore was riding high at 90 for no loss but it was the tight bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Thangarasu Natarajan, and Sandeep Sharma that restricted them to 169. Even the mighty Virat Kohli could muster only 14 runs. AB De Villiers, referred to as Mr 360 degrees, had to battle hard to score his half-century.

When targets are not huge and gettable, batsmen need to chase with discipline, maintain their momentum, and not gift away their wickets. Warner getting run out while backing up for a run was a sign of things to come for Hyderabad during the course of the innings. Jonny Bairstow looked like he carried the form from his knock of 112 against Australia in the third One Day International at Manchester to stitch on a 71-runs partnership with Manish Pandey.

After this partnership was broken, Bangalore lived up to their name of being the royal challengers and struck through the willy Yuzvendra Chahal. His accurate deceptive leg break googlies titled the match in Bangalore’s favour. A double strike in the 16th over by clean bowling Bairstow and Vijay Shankar off successive deliveries rightly earned him the man of the match award. 

A collision between Abhishek Sharma and Rashid Khan that resulted in Sharma being run out and Khan crashing down was symbolic of Hyderabad’s downfall. Bangalore’s tall and lanky pacer Navdeep Saini unleashed his ability to bowing fast, consistently maintaining a speed of around 140kph to ensure that no batsmen down the order from Hyderabad manages a corrective action.  Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khan found Saini’s delivery too fast to handle and got bowled. 

A winning start for Bangalore can motivate them to aim for the trophy that had eluded them so far, but they need to keep this momentum going. A smiling Kohli has admitted that his team kept their composure and won the match. Composure to handle the challenge and keep winning can ensure they achieve their title dream.