IPL 10: SRH v RCB – Five Reasons Why RCB lost their first match!
Dec 12, 2017 at 1:11 PM
The tenth edition of Indian Premier League started off with great pomp and ceremony and a lot of eyeballs swinging round the corner with the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad up against previous season’s runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Sunrisers Hyderabad had retained the core of the team that won the title last season and are further boosted by the acquisition of a few exciting players at the player auction prior to the season. There were, in particular, talks about the performance of Afghanistan players – Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, who are appearing in the IPL for the first time. RCB, who missed out on the title last year, are crippled with injuries to their several heavyweights namely Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and KL Rahul prior to the game.
RESULT: Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers by 35 runs. It was rather a tame way for the match to end as Royal Challengers Bangalore surrendered! SRH rendered their second highest win in IPL(by runs) after 2016 in Vizag versus MI.
SRH becomes the second team after KKR to win an opening match of next IPL season after winning the IPL title in previous season
Let us sweep through the reasons that had led the Royals to lose it once again against the defending champions!
Yuvraj Singh – Yuvraj Singh’s 27-ball 62 provided SRH with the fire-power to notch 207/4 against RCB at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium. It was his fastest 50 (26b) and his stand-and-deliver six over cover off Choudhary was a peach, but he had S Aravind to thank for a reprieve when on 26. If you drop the catch of a star player and when the name is Yuvraj there are fewer chances that you will be ordained with a good fate! He was declared the MAN OF THE MATCH last day and was one of the vital reasons to outcast the RCB camp in their first face-off!
Batting Of SRH as a whole unit Vs failure of some RCB big names – Well, what’s in a name? Rightly said! Sometimes building innings matter more than playing audacious shots on air. Exactly what SRH did; great knocks from Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh sailed them to post 207 for four. Dhawan (40; 31b, 5×4) seized the moment after Warner fell early, as Aniket Choudhary leaked 17 runs in the sixth over and his 74-run partnership with Henriques, who played a little gem of 52 (37b, 4×3, 6×2) put them on a sound footing before Yuvraj demoralised! Whereas on the other hand, RCB indeed from beforehand had lost a bit of charm in camp as the skipper Virat Kohli last year’s orange cap winner, ABD Villiers and KL Rahul was missing on the field due to injury issues! Had Chris Gayle delivered in the manner he had threatened to, it probably would have sealed the deal for RCB on a day. So in the batting department, SRH had totally outcasted RCB.
Bowling SRH vs RCB – SRH has been known for their bowling strength and defending runs on the board! And this year’s first match was no less to showcase the strengths of the camp. Hooda had the last laugh, after some brutal hitting, with Gayle being pouched by skipper David Warner on the long-off fence. The star Leggie RASHID KHAN got a wicket off just his fourth delivery!
As usual, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was brilliant up front and at ‘the death’ and the Sunrisers certainly were switched on. Nehra was a bit costly at the beginning but made up for it as he grabbed two wickets in two balls and was on a hat-trick! On the other hand, RCB’s Aniket Choudhary was one of the costliest on the show, leaking 17 runs in an over!