The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had come into this game with some momentum after defeating the Mumbai Indians (MI) in a closely fought game that went down to the last ball. However, in the second game, they again pulled off a phenomenal win against Sunrisers Hyderabad owing to some brilliant bowling of Shahbaz Ahmed and Harshal Patel. Both the sides made changes with Devdutt Padikkal replacing Rajat Patidar, while Jason Holder and Shahbaz Nadeem came in at the expense of Mohammad Nabi and Sandeep Sharma.
Padikkal was looking in a decent touch before being dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The early breakthrough jittered the momentum, although Virat Kolhi smashed T Natarajan was a couple of boundaries. The Shahbaz-Kohli stand had just started to grow in confidence when SRH employed Shahbaz Nadeem to get his namesake. A healthy partnership for the third wicket followed between Glenn Maxwell and skipper Kohli allowed them to score 22 runs off Nadeem’s final over.
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What appeared to be a perfect platform for acceleration, Kohli miscued a pull against Jason Holder that was well-caught by Vijay Shankar. SRH’s trump card, Rashid Khan then got the wicket of AB de Villiers. The boundaries dried up as Maxwell entered into a shell. Any chances of a strong finish for RCB ended when Dan Christian was dismissed, but Kyle Jamieson whacked a couple of boundaries before getting out in the final over. However, Maxwell smacked a six in the final over as RCB finished 149/8.
A searing spell of new-ball bowling from Mohammad Siraj, helped RCB to get the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha. Despite the breakthrough was David Warner, who belted Kyle Jamieson for a four and six in the 17-run fourth over. After an incredibly impressive two-over spell, Siraj was smacked for plenty by Warner as SRH ended the powerplay at 50/1.
Alongside the skipper, Manish Pandey made things merry as he smoked Sundar over long-on for a giant six before Warner reverse-swept and swept Chahal in the 11th over. Just when SRH was looking in good touch, the 69-ball 83-run stand was broken by Jamieson’s off-cutter as Warner mistimed a shot ball. Another collapse happened when in the triple-wicket 17th over from Ahmed.
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Shahbaz Ahmed first dismissed Jonny Bairstow, who went for a sweep, while Pandey also got out on the very next ball before Abdul Samad gave a return catch to the bowler. Harshal Patel added more to the drama as he sent back Vijay Shankar and Siraj got Holder caught at long-off in the penultimate over. Rashid Khan was then dismissed run-out in the final over, followed by Shahbaz Nadeem’s dismissal as once cruising SRH conceded the game by 6 runs.
Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore – 149/8 in 20 overs (G Maxwell: 59; R Khan: 2/18, J Holder: 3/30) defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad – 143/9 in 20 overs (D Warner: 54; S Ahmed: 3/7, H Patel: 2/25) by 6 runs
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
There is a new disaster horror movie in town. It's called "Death Overs in Chennai".
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 14, 2021
Indian captains getting one up against the opposition captain when it comes winning crucial moments in the game. Yesterday we saw from #RohithSharma today #ViratKohli Bowling Shahbaz 17th overs. Well done @RCBTweets
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 14, 2021
RCB two in two, superb start of the season @RCBTweets @IPL #SRHvRCB #IPL2021
— Vinay Kumar R (@Vinay_Kumar_R) April 14, 2021
What a game! Brilliant captaincy by King @imVkohli to bring in #Shahbaz into the attack! Very impressed by #Harshal to show he's got the nerves to bowl at the death! What a win for @RCBTweets looks like one hell of a season ahead! Terrible batting display by @SunRisers! #SRHvRCB
— Kris Srikkanth (@KrisSrikkanth) April 14, 2021
What a top class win by Rcb . Outstanding stuff . 2 out of 2 for them . They looking really good . Kept their cool under pressure and virat was spot on with his bowling changes . #SRHvsRCB #ipl2021 #rcb
— Rohan Gavaskar (@rohangava9) April 14, 2021
Another tight one .. another tense one #VIVOIPL #SRHvRCB Congratulations @RCBTweets repeat of yesterday .. hang in there and grind your way through
— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) April 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/zomato/status/1382389655794900992?s=20
6 out of the 13 players in the IPL from Tamilnadu are spinners. Just saying!
— Abhinav Mukund (@mukundabhinav) April 14, 2021
Such a sweet victory this! Bowling is the strength of this new #RCB team and it’s only going to get stronger. Bring it on. Shahbaz, Siraj, Harshal, you guys were sensational. #IPL2021 #SRHvRCB
— Ajith Ramamurthy (@Ajith_tweets) April 14, 2021
