Hello everyone. It was yet another exciting game of IPL that we witnessed between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Bangalore was coming after winning their previous game against Mumbai that went till the last ball and Hyderabad was coming after losing their previous match against Kolkata which they should have won. This was the fourth match on MA Chidambaram Stadium and now I wonder if the pitch is possessed by some ghost of a bowler.
The toss was won by David Warner and he asked Virat Kohli and his team Bangalore to bat first. Kohli opened the inning with Devdutt Padikkal who had tested COVID positive before the start of the tournament and hence had to miss the first match for Bangalore. He didn't have a good game with the bat and was dismissed for 11 which he scored in 13 balls. Shahbaz Ahmed came at 3 and joined Kohli in the middle but he too couldn't stay for long and was held in the deep off the bowling of Shahbaz Nadeem. Glenn Maxwell and Kohli tried putting up a partnership after that and Bangalore was 65 for the fall of 2 wickets in the halfway stage of the inning. But Maxwell targeted the 11th over and Nadeem conceded 21 runs in that over. That's where Bangalore expected to get the run rate moving but they lost Kohli a few minutes later. He couldn't score freely and could manage only 33 in 29 balls. Maxwell was the lone warrior for Bangalore as nobody supported him on the other end for long. But Maxwell got to his first IPL fifty after 2015 and got his side to 149 by the end of the inning. Jason Holder and Rashid Khan were the best bowlers for Hyderabad as they had bowling figures of 30-3 and 18-2 respectively in the order of runs conceded and wickets taken.
Hyderabad had to make 150 to win the match and David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha opened the batting for their side. But Mohammad Siraj bowled a brilliant first over to give us a glimpse of how the chase was going to be for Hyderabad. Saha was later dismissed by Siraj in his second over for 1 run off 9 balls. Manish Pandey was the next man in and a good inning was expected from him which would be sufficient to take his side home, something which he wasn't able to do in the last match. He and Warner put up a good partnership and the pair continued batting together till 14th over. Warner had reached his fifty as well and was scoring at a strike rate of around 150. Manish Pandey was scoring slow but the partnership was looking strong. But that was eventually broken Kyle Jamieson dismissed Warner in the 14th over. Johnny Bairstow was the next man in. By the end of 16 overs, Hyderabad was 135 at the loss of 2 wickets. Bairstow and Manish Pandey were in the middle and Hyderabad couldn't have asked for anything better. But that's when the game turned. Shahbaz Ahmed bowled the 17th over and he dismissed Bairstow on the first ball, Manish Pandey on the second ball, and Abdul Samad on the last ball of the over. He picked up 3 wickets while giving away just 1 run in the over. Hyderabad now needed 34 in the last 3 overs and they had two new batsmen in for them. Vijay Shankar and Jason Holder too threw their wickets away and Hyderabad needed 27 runs in the last 2 overs. Rashid Khan was the only hope for them who took the match till the last over. The game got interesting when Harshal Patel bowled a no-ball in the final over and Hyderabad needed 8 runs from 4 balls. But Rashid was run-out on the next ball and Bangalore won the match comfortably by 6 runs. Mohammad Siraj and Harshal Patel picked up 2 wickets each and Shahbaz Ahmed got 3 wickets in a single over for Bangalore.
This was the second consecutive game where the team chasing needed nearly a run-a-ball in the final 5 overs but still lost the match. (I hope you understand now why I wonder if the ground has some bowler's spirit in it.) 4 matches have been played on this ground till now and all the teams decided to chase after winning the toss and all the matches have been won by the teams batting first. The chasing teams expect the dew to play a big role in the later stage of the second inning but that isn't happening apparently. It would be interesting to see now how the teams playing their upcoming matches on this ground decide to do after winning the toss.
For Bangalore, Glenn Maxwell and Kyle Jamieson have been very good investments and they would be pretty happy with that. Their concern would be Virat Kohli and Yuzvendera Chahal not looking at their best. Kohli got the start in both the match but couldn't go on to score big and Chahal hasn't been able to pick wickets on the ground he was expected to be very dangerous for all the batsmen.
For Hyderabad, it's obvious that they need Kane Williamson in the middle to make their middle-order stronger as they lost both their matches because of their middle-order batsmen not being able to get those finishing runs. But getting Williamson in would mean benching either Holder or Bairstow which could be tricky for them. They might have to take a call on Saha and Vijay Shankar as well soon. Maybe it's time to back Priyam Garg again this season.
Up next, we have Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals locking horns on 15th April. Both sides have new captains this season and it would be interesting to see which of them would have the last laugh in tomorrow's game. Do come back here to read about the summary of the match Friday morning.
Until then, follow the safety protocols against COVID and stay safe.
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