On Monday night, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered another thrilling defeat and this time in a low-scoring game against the hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (Uppal, Hyderabad).

RCB captain Virat Kohli decided to bowl first after winning the toss. With the help of Kane Williamson and Shakib Al Hasan’s responsible batting, SRH managed to put 146 runs on the board after losing all ten wickets in the final ball of that innings.

In reply, all RCB batsmen struggled against the SRH bowlers as they only managed to score 141/6 at the end of 20 overs. SRH won this game by just 5 runs.

Now, we will briefly talk about some important reasons for RCB’s defeat in this game.

Kane-Shakib partnership

While the other top-order SRH batsmen failed to make a good start, skipper Kane Williamson and Shakib Al Hasan provided a crucial 64-run partnership for the fourth-wicket. Williamson scored 56 runs off 39 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes while Shakib managed to score an important 35 runs off 32 balls (5 fours).

Though RCB bowlers once again bowled very well in the late of that innings as SRH failed to reach the 150-run mark, that partnership played an important role in the game.

Also read: Match 39 (SRH vs RCB) – Hits and Flops

Top order failure

RCB top-orders failed to make a good start during their low chasing. Openers Manan Vohra and Parthiv Patel were dismissed on 8 and 20 runs respectively while no.4 batsman AB de Villiers just scored 5 runs before he was bowled by Rashid Khan.

Apart from skipper Virat Kohli, no other top-order RCB batsmen reached the 30-run mark. The poor start affected hugely for RCB as they just failed to chase that small target.

Kohli-Vohra failed to utilise their drop chances

Skipper Virat Kohli and Manan Vohra both got one life as they were dropped once each by the SRH fielders. Vohra was dropped on 7 runs by Siddharth Kaul at deep mid wicket while Kohli was dropped on 33 runs by SRH skipper Kane Williamson at the slip.

However, both were dismissed soon as Vohra only score 8 runs and Kohli got out on 39 runs. They had very good chances to finish the game successfully after getting lucky chances but failed to work on those chances.

Also read: (SRH vs RCB) – Turning Point of the Match

Struggled to score runs in last three overs

After the long poor period in RCB innings, Colin de Grandhomme and Mandeep Singh showed some good batting in the late moment as RCB was starting to believe their chances for victory. RCB needed 25 runs in the last three overs while Grandhomme and Mandeep both were set on the pitch.

During that period, SRH pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled 18^th and 20^th overs while another pacer Siddarth Kaul bowled the 19^th over. In that crucial period, both bowlers bowled extremely well as the set RCB batsmen struggled to score runs. RCB batsmen only got one boundary in the last three overs while they only managed to score 6 runs, 7 runs and 6 runs respectively in the last three overs.

In the final ball of the match, Grandhomme had to score 6 runs for securing the victory for RCB but SRH pacer Bhuvneshwar bowled him and secured his team for another low-scoring thrilling victory.