A spirited Sunrisers Hyderabad has been able to turn it’s fortunes around after a poor start to it’s IPL 2016 campaign. The side is now placed 5th in the points table and the due credit for it goes to their captain in David Warner whose constant run of form has guided the side to many crucial wins over the last 2 weeks – Warner’s good performance can be measured by the fact that he’s in the top 3 leading run scorers of IPL 2016 thus far.
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | vs | Royal Challangers Bangalore |
| Date | 30 Apr 2016 | |
| Venue | Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium | |
| 194/5 (20) | 179/6 (20) | |
Sunrisers won by 15 runs |
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27th match of the IPL 2016 saw Sunrisers Hyderabad going against Royal Challengers Bangalore – a side that has some very explosive players but still finds itself at 7th in the points table, perhaps the fact that Gayle has had to miss a few matches due to birth of his daughter is hurting RCB’s batting which clearly is their strong point this season with the bowling clearly struggling (and yet ironically RCB has defend totals twice in tournament, only side to do so).
The match was delayed by an hour and the toss took place at 8:30, which the RCB won and put SRH into bat. RCB made 3 changes to it’s unit bringing IN Varun Aaron for Stuart Binny, Harshal Patel for Chahal and Sachin Baby for Sarfaraz (a surprise move). The Sunrisers Hyderabad finally gave a game to Kane Williamson and also brought IN Sran and Reddy.
While it was expected that Williamson will open with Warner but the SRH stuck with it’s usual opening pair in Warner and Dhawan. It was however another disappointing stay for Dhawan at the crease, failing to take his side off to a good start –falling to Richards (caught and bowled) for 11.
The formidable shot-making from Warner yet again played a pivotal role in giving stability to the run-making from Sunrisers Hydebrad, he was equally well supported from Williamson – who was playing his first match for Hyderabad this season.
Warner’s 92 in 50 balls was instrumental in Hyderabad getting to a strong total of 194, the added advantage of having someone like Henriques to finish the innings translated into action as Henriques vigorous shot-making in the last few overs –consisting of 3 massive sixes got Hyderabad to a pretty defendable total.
Williamson deserves a mention for a crucial 50 in 38 balls which considering this being his first match this season is quite a positive sign for Hyderabad, having struggled with steady starts at the top due to out of form Dhawan. Perhaps sending Williamson to open is another possibility that can be looked into by Hyderabad in coming matches.
In it’s revert, the Royal Challengers Bangalore who came into this match without Gayle meant that Rahul got another go to open with Kohli.
The expectations from Kohli are always huge and it increased considering the weightage of this match (with RCB finding itself at 7th in the points table), this match had a lot at stake. Sadly for RCB and Kohli fans, today wasn’t to be his day. A beautiful delivery from the extremely talented young Bangladeshi bowler in Mustafizue, bowling a delivery that shaped outwards to Kohli, who likes to drive through the off-side was only managed to hit the ball straight to Reddy at Cover.
The positive for RCB at top was Rahul, who quite contrary to his usual style of play – which is more into taking singles and doubles was looking a lot more aggressive in this match. Rahul got to a quick-fire fifty but was unable to carry the flow of runs, losing his wicket for 51 in 28 balls (6×4 and 1×6).
An absolute dolly was dropped by Nehra and had he grabbed the crucial catch, it could’ve sent Villiers back to the pavilion cheaply but it wasn’t to be and Nehra was seen blaming the floodlights, indicating that he was unable to see the ball. Villiers was again dropped at extra cover, this time by D Hooda.
Thankfully for Sunrisers Hyderabad, the 2 absolute blunders of dropping someone like Villiers didn’t come back to bite them as Villiers had one of his very rare off days. 47 in 32 deliveries looks efficient on paper but Villiers clearly wasn’t at his natural best and also it was 2 sixes on 2 consecutive deliveries that improved his strike rate in an innings where he played close to a strike rate of 100.
After Villiers, debuting Sachin Baby made 27 in 16 and Jadhav made 25 in 15 – the RCB still fell short by 15 runs. The Royal Challengers Bangalore required one of their “big 3” in Kohli, Villiers or Watson to anchor the innings and play till the end which wasn’t to be and hence Sunrisers Hydebrad won their 4th game in 7 matches while Bangalore lose 4 in their 6 games.
RCB vs SRH Video Recap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBLbK4EGEV0
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