Royal Challengers Bengaluru players Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar are seen in action during the Indian Premier League 2024 match in Hyderabad on April 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

Royal Challengers Bengaluru delivered a stunning all-round performance to upset crowd-favourite Sunrisers Hyderabad, registering a 35-run victory in their IPL league match, at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on Thursday.

The visitors’ performance also served a reminder that the SRH batting line-up can be brittle in the face of accurate, if not unplayable, bowling and also raised hopes for other teams as the championship heads for the business-end.

Chasing 207 for victory, the home team was straightaway under pressure with Will Jacks inducing a poor stroke from the dangerous Impact Player Travis Head off the sixth ball of the innings.

Soon, fellow-opener Abhishek Sharma’s cameo ended, mistiming a pull off Yash Dayal only to be caught behind, before SRH’s Impact Player, the left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, trapped Aiden Markram leg-before with a low full-toss.

RCB was back on top again when Heinrich Klaasen, who had hit the previous ball from Swapnil for a six over long-on, perished trying to repeat the stroke off the next.

Later, leg-spinner Karn Sharma had Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled, missing a reverse sweep, and then took a smart return catch to send back the dangerous Abdul Samad to reduce SRH to 85 for six in 9.1 overs. The rest of the innings was a formality as RCB notched up a much-needed victory.

Coming good

Earlier, Rajat Patidar’s brilliance at the top of the order, an unusually slow half-century by Virat Kohli, and a cameo in the final overs by Cameron Green helped Royal Challengers score a challenging 206 for seven.

Though Kohli struggled to get going after all his boundaries came within the first six overs, Patidar compensated by scoring a 20-ball half-century that included four sixes off leg-spinner Mayank Markande in the 11th over of the innings.

Jaydev Unadkat was the pick of the SRH bowlers with a three-wicket haul, including the prize scalps of Patidar and Kohli. RCB scored 64 runs from the last five overs, mainly due to some lusty blows from Green.

LSG’s Mayank Yadav during the IPL 2024 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) vs Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (KSCA), in Bengaluru on April 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

Mayank Yadav was too hot to handle. The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pacer cranked it up, going as high as 156.7 kmph, forcing Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to back away from the fight.

The Mayank fire was lit in his first over, when he pinned Glenn Maxwell with a quick, short ball. Mayank then created magic, when he castled Australian Cameron Green with sheer pace. Green was much too late on the express delivery, meekly losing his off-stump.

Rajat Patidar was Mayank’s third victim — another short ball doing the trick. The home team, out for the count after Mayank’s blows, lost by 28 runs.

RCB vs LSG Live Score Updates, IPL 2024

RCB’s hopes rested on Impact Player Mahipal Lomror (33, 13b, 3×4, 3×6), who kept the crowd interested with some big hits. But when he fell in the 18th over, RCB’s fate was sealed.

RCB would have believed it gained a big advantage by winning the toss and opting to chase.

On a sticky M. Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch, it was left to Quinton de Kock (81, 56b, 8×4, 5×6) and Nicholas Pooran (40 n.o., 21b, 1×4, 5×6) to take LSG to a respectable total.

Opener de Kock waged a lone hand at the top of the order. De Kock received a life on 32, when Maxwell failed to hold on to a tough chance at mid-off.

LSG skipper K.L. Rahul, cleared to play after recovering from an injury, was tentative in his 14-ball 20. Devdutt Padikkal (6) was sent back through an excellent catch from wicketkeeper Anuj Rawat. de Kock cut loose in the 13th over, when he hammered a wayward Green for two sixes and a four.

RCB was quickly back on top, as LSG limped to 148 for five in 18 overs. Pooran sprung into action against left-arm seamer Reece Topley, who in search of the wide yorker, erred with full tosses. Pooran hit it into the point stands for two sixes, and then smashed a short ball onto the stadium roof. Pooran hit two maximums in the final over, bowled by Mohammed Siraj, to give LSG a crucial late fillip.

Victory in their respective previous games might have eased the initial nerves but imperfections remain, hence Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders will eye a quick course correction to add steam to their campaign in an IPL 2024 match in Bengaluru on March 29.

The Royal Challengers defeated Punjab Kings by four wickets, while the Knight Riders elbowed out Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs to garner some early points.

But entering the points table has not really eased some of the worries — particularly pertaining to the top and middle-order batting.

The Bengaluru dugout might be a happy space after star batter Virat Kohli made a classy fifty on an unusually gripping Chinnaswamy pitch while chasing 177 against Punjab the other night, but that’s only one part of the story.

Skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameroon Green and Rajat Patidar are yet to hit the overdrive, and for the win against PBKS they had to rely on the last-minute cameos of Dinesh Karthik and ‘Impact Player’ Mahipal Lomror.

The Kolkatans have a much more capable bowling unit, at least on paper, and such a collectively underwhelming effort by frontline batters might push RCB into deep troubles against them.

Once they iron out that rough edges, RCB can look at their bowling unit that still needs to fill a couple of unticked boxes despite good outings by pacers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal against Punjab.

Pacer Alzarri Joseph continues to be profligate and his figures — 0/38, 1/43 — might prompt the RCB think-tank to bring in England left-arm quick Reece Topley, who has impressive white-ball skills, in place of the West Indian for this match.

The Knight Riders offer a strikingly similar plot. Their top and middle-order consisting of captain Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana malfunctioned against SRH at the Eden Gardens.

It required a combined effort from impact sub Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell — the 6, 7, 8 — for them to post a competitive total.

Shreyas, who is central to their batting plans, was dismissed for a two-ball duck, but the return to Chinnaswamy might give him a sense of relief as he had fruitful outings in white-ball cricket in his last two innings.

The elegant right-hander made an unbeaten 128 against the Netherlands in last year’s World Cup before making a 53 against Australia in the fifth T20I in December.

In bowling, Narine redeemed himself with a frugal spell (1/19) after a modest effort with the bat, but pacer Mitchell Starc, their record buy, and Varun Chakravarthy failed to impress, leaking over 50 runs in their four overs.

The KKR think-tank might not be unduly worried as their campaign is still at a nascent stage, but they would like to see the first-choice pacer and spinner finding their range at the earliest.

But it is unlikely that the Knights will make changes to their eleven for this match, unless they want to give a go to promising leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, who showed fine form during KKR’s pre-season matches.

Squads:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

Match starts at 7.30 PM.