Rajat Patidar's explosive fifty and a combined effort from the spinners secured Royal Challengers Bengaluru's 35-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024 match on Thursday, ending their six-match losing streak. Patidar's 50 off 20 balls was in stark contrast to Virat Kohli's measured 51 off 43 balls as RCB scored 206 for seven after opting to bat. For a team that has crossed the 250-run mark three times this season, the target was very much achievable but the in-form SRH batsman could not deliver this time and finished at 171 for eight in 20 overs.
It was a much-needed result for RCB, who lost seven of their first eight matches. The loss was SRH's third in eight matches.
Considering the effectiveness of the spinners in the first innings, RCB opened the bowling with part-time off-spinner Will Jacks. The English man had the devastating Travis Head (1 from 3) caught at third man to give RCB a huge boost.
Head's opening partner Abhishek Sharma (31 off 13) entertained the home crowd until his attempted slog ended up in the hands of wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
Left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, making his RCB debut, struck twice in his first over after removing dangerous South African duo Aiden Markram and Henrich Klaasen. While Markram missed a full toss to be adjudged lbw, Klaasen was caught at mid-on after mistimed a lofted drive, leaving SRH on 56 for four in five overs.
Leggie Karn Sharma then dismissed Nitish Reddy and Abdul Samad to close the door on the opposition.
Earlier, Patidar did most of the work in his 65-run stand with Kohli, who was focused on giving the attack to his partner, an approach questioned by Sunil Gavaskar on air.
Cameron Green (37 not out off 20) and Swapnil Singh (12 off 6) came up with timely strikes in the death overs to take RCB past the 200 mark.
RCB hit the mark in the first three overs with Kohli and Faf du Plessis (25 off 12) going hard against the SRH bowlers, including opposition skipper Pat Cummins who conceded 19 runs in his first over.
However, from 43 without a loss off the first 18 balls, RCB could only reach 61 for 1 by the end of the powerplay.
Du Plessis was deceived by a slow short ball from T Natarajan and was caught on mid-on by Aiden Markram. Will Jacks (6 off 9) went for a wild slog sweep after a flying delivery from leg-spinner Mayank Markande but could not make contact to be bowled, leaving RCB 65 for two in seven overs.
That was when Kohli and Patidar came together to take the innings forward.
The spinners were able to put pressure on the batters after the powerplay. While Kohli went for rotation of attack in this difficult phase for RCB, Patidar broke the shackles by smashing Markande for four consecutive sixes in the 11th over.
The first two hits were on the ground before Patidar read Markande's google to send it over mid-wicket. The fourth and final six came from a wide and crazy delivery that sent Patidar over extra cover.
Such was the contrast in the style of the approaches that Patidar needed 19 balls to reach his fifty, while IPL's leading run-getter Kohli took 37.
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