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Bengaluru: AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli heroics secured Royal Challengers Bangalore 45-run in win in IPL 2016 Match 4 in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
David Warner kept the hopes alive for an unlikely Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) win, but his dismissal signalled the end as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won by a huge margin of 45 runs in Match 4 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 at Bengaluru.
Warner smashed a 21-ball half-century but was out soon after, hitting Shane Watson down the throat of Adam Milne at deep midwicket for 58 off 25 balls with 4 fours and 5 sixes. At the time of his dismissal SRH were 86 for 2 in 8.4 overs.
Shikhar Dhawan, who was dropped from India’s playing XI in the T20 World Cup 2016, was the first man to be dismissed. He was clean bowled by Parvez Rasool for 8 off 9 balls.
Moises Henriques came in at No. 3 but ended up scoring at a sub-100 strike rate. His innigns of 19 came off 23 balls. He was fourth out, hitting Milne to Rasool. Before him Naman Ojha had holed out to AB de Villiers off Yuzvendra Chahal for a duck.
Deepak Hooda was the next to go, swiping Chahal to de Villiers for 6. Ashish Reddy came in and played a few big hits, whacking 32 off 18 balls with 2 fours and 3 sixes.
Eoin Morgan, batting all the way down at No. 6, hit a few boundaries but by then the match was already out of SRH’s grasp.
Karn Sharma offered a reminder of his batting prowess, actually out-scoring Morgan in their partnership. The RCB bowlers did not have a good outing, but their batsmen ensured that they still managed to win by a massive 45-run margin.
Earlier, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli laid the platform and Sarfaraz Khan put the finishing touches. Kohli, opening the batting for RCB, started slowly but once he hit his groove he proved unstoppable till his dismissal.
His opening partner Chris Gayle suffered a rare failure, getting bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 1, but No. 3 batsman de Villiers more than made up for the early dismissal.
SRH's problems were further compounded by the fact that their seniormost pacer Ashish Nehra had to leave the field with an injury and could not bowl his full quota of overs.
RCB were 6 for 1 in the second over at that stage, but the duo of de Villiers and Kohli soon ensured that RCB were right back on track. The partnership yielded 157 runs in a mere 14.3 overs. Bhuvneshwar later ended Kohli’s blitz with a terrific yorker on leg stumps. Kohli was dismissed for 75 off 51 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes.
Shane Watson, making his debut, got his innings off to a flying start, smashing Karn Sharma for 3 sixes in as many balls to end the 17th over. Mustafizur Rahman, by far the best bowler of the innings, came on to bowl the next over.
Perhaps the best batting line-up of the tournament, RCB ensured that despite their four big guns getting dismissed, the lower order did not let the team down. The young Sarfaraz Khan and Jadhav kept the runs flowing, taking RCB past 200.
Brief scores
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 227 for 4 (de Villiers 82, Kohli 75, Sarfaraz 35*)
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 182 for 6 (Warner 58, Reddy 32)
Result - Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 45-run
