RCB vs SRH 54th Match, IPL 2022

Arya- Earlier in the day, it was the RCB skipper Faf du Plessis who won the toss and opted to bat on another hot and humid Sunday afternoon. Virat Kohli’s woeful run continued as he was dismissed very first ball for the 3rd time in the tournament. Jagadeesh Suchith started off with a simple tossed up delivery on the middle stump and he ended up chipping that straight to the midwicket fielder. As soft as it can get and his reaction summed up the stress that he has been going through due to the lack of runs in the tournament. 

The SRH bowlers bowled very well in the first five overs but the duo of Rajat Patidar and skipper Du Plessis ensured that they recovered from the hiccup and eventually consolidated in the final over of the powerplay. Kartik Tyagi faced the brunt as he was smashed for 17 runs in his first over. Both the batters continued the good work sharing a brilliant stand of 105 runs. 

Patidar displayed his wide array of strokes and scored 48 of 38 deliveries, an innings which included 4 fours and a couple of sixes. Patidar was eventually dismissed by Suchith in his last over as he tried to take him on and was holed out in the deep. Glenn Maxwell came in at the fall of his wicket and announced his arrival to the crease with a humungous 94 metres mix of a switch hit. While he found the boundaries on regular intervals, he did eat up a few deliveries in the middle as his big shots didn’t connect. 

Following his dismissal, it was Dinesh Karthik who came out and blazed his way to a 8 balls 30 which propelled RCB to a score of 192 in their allotted 20 overs. He was quite severe on Farooqi who was making his debut, smoking him for three consecutive sixes before finishing off with a boundary. Du Plessis remained unbeaten on 73 while Suchith was the pick of the bowlers with a couple to his name. 

Arya- It was a stiff target and SRH needed their opening duo of Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson to get them off to a start of some substance. However, it was exactly the opposite of what they would have thought. Kane Williamson was dismissed without facing a delivery as an error of judgment cost his wicket in the very first delivery of the match. Glenn Maxwell then cleaned up Abhishek Sharma in the same over as RCB was all over SRH. 

Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi then started the rebuilding phase. Markram started off with two crisp shots and looked in good touch. Tripathi also played some delightful shots at the other end but was unable to keep a check with the required run rate. Eventually, the run rate pressure brought about the downfall of Markram n the 9th over as Hasaranga prized him out. 

Rahul Tripathi did keep them in the game for a while with some exceptional blows but the target was always going to be a bit too much for their liking. Wanindu Hasaranga was quite exceptional in his final spell as he bagged the wickets of Suchith, Kartik Tyagi and Shashank Singh in the final over to finish with exceptional figures of 5/18 in his 4 overs spell. In the end the target was way too much as they fell short by 67 runs.