After a wait of two hours and 40 minutes, the Hyderabad crowd got the apt reward for their patience in form of a power-packed albeit a very short game of explosive cricket. In the end it was the visitors, Royal Challengers Bangalore, that came out trumps by six wickets (D/L) in a rain-truncated game.
Sunrisers Hyderabad had opted to bat first before rain delayed the start of the match. When David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan finally came in the middle, it rained again – this time fours and sixes. The game was truncated to 11 overs per side and the batsmen came out all guns blazing.
Dhawan departed early, in the third over, lobbing a catch to mid-on. But what transpired after that was utter carnage. Warner and Moises Henriques smashed everything that came their way.
The slaughter began when Henriques smacked Yuzvendra Chahal for a couple of fours and a six in the fifth over. He continued his charge by hitting a four and a six to Ashoke Dinda, who was playing his first game of IPL 2015.
Henriques got a lifeline when Mandeep Singh put him down at long-on off the first ball of the seventh over. He celebrated it by amassing 16 runs off the next four balls – two fours and a six. After breezing to a 57 off 22 balls (5 fours and 4 sixes) Henriques top-edged a David Wiese delivery behind the stumps to Dinesh Karthik. That was Wiese’s second wicket after that of Dhawan.
Warner was relatively quiet, watching his fellow Australian go big. He joined the party soon and did it in style, with a switch-hit six off Chahal. The switch came into play a couple of times more – for a double to covers and then a boundary off the inside edge to Wiese.
The Sunrisers had plundered 135 for 3 in their 11 overs. As the players walked off the field after the first innings, the rain returned. A further delay of 35 minutes followed and RCB’s innings was shortened to six overs. Their target – 81 runs.
Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli walked in the middle, only to resume the havoc initiated by the SRH batsmen. Their first target was Dale Steyn, who had returned into the playing XI after a significant gap. Steyn’s first over produced 17 runs which included three boundaries (2 fours and a six) on the leg-side.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the ball next and was unlucky to be creamed for 24 runs. His first ball, to Gayle was right on the money – he deceived the batsman with a slower one and cramped him for room. The ball, incredibly, took the top-edge of the bat and raced away to the third man fence. Another boundary in that over came off an inside edge. However, the over also featured a couple of clean strikes for sixes.
The third over gave a glimmer of hope to the home team after the disastrous start. Henriques carried his batting form into his bowling and dismissed Gayle (35 off 10 balls) and AB de Villiers off consecutive balls. Another wicket fell in the fifth over as Praveen Kumar got Mandeep Singh caught deep square-leg off a full-toss.
RCB needed 14 off the last over and they had their captain to take them home despite the run-out of Karthik off the second ball.
Facing his India team-mate, Bhuvneshwar, Kohli played a stroke of genius when he anticipated the yorker and got into the position early on to glide it down to the point fence. Next ball: a wide yorker that Kohli pierced in the gap between point and third man.
The match reached an apt dramatic climax as Kohli slammed one high and far for Warner to pouch it at the boundary. The SRH captain celebrated the catch but kept taking backward steps and eventually touched the rope. It was a six and Kohli had won RCB the thriller with a 19-ball unbeaten innings of 44. (IPL website)
Brief Scores: RCB 83 for 4 [5.5 overs] (Virat 44*, Gayle 35) beat SRH 135 for 3 [11 overs] (Henriques 57, Warner 52*) by 6 wickets (DL).
