Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar scored fine half centuries as Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 35 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, openers Kohli and Faf Du Plessis got RCB off to a quickfire start. The duo added 48 runs for the first wicket before the latter perished to T Natarajan for 25.
Will Jacks (6) was then cleaned up by Mayank Markande while attempting a sweep shot. Kohli along with Patidar added 65 runs for the third wicket stand before the latter flicked a full toss from Jaydev Unadkat to Abdul Samad at deep square leg for a quickfire 20 ball-50.
The star Indian batter Kohli after reaching his fifty, miscued a slower short of length delivery from Unadkat to Andul Samad for 51. However cameos from Cameron Green (37), Dinesh Karthik (11) and Swapnil Singh (12)* propelled RCB to a challenging total of 206/7 in their 20 overs.
Chasing 207, Will Jacks drew first blood by snaring the prize scalp of Travis Head in the very first over for 1. Abhishek Sharma along with Aiden Markram put on 36 runs for the second wicket stand before the former was dismissed by Yash Dayal for 31.
Swapnil Singh who came in as impact player dismissed both Markram (7) and Klaasen (7) in the fifth over. Shahbaz Ahmed (40) and Pat Cummins (31) provided handy contributions down the order but it wasn’t enough as SRH ended up with 171/8 in their 20 overs, thereby falling 35 run short of the target.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 206/7 (Kohli 51, Patidar 50, Unadkat 3-30, Natarajan 2-39) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 171/8 (Shahbaz 40, Green 2-12, Karn 2-29, Swapnil 2-40) by 35 runs
