Shahbaz scripts Bangalore’s comeback against Hyderabad

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Shahbaz Ahmed (centre) celebrates with captain Virat Kohli (left) and Mohamed Siraj after taking a Sunrisers Hyderabad wicket. (Sportzpics for IPL)

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won their second consecutive game after beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League in Chennai yesterday. RCB produced a monumental comeback with the ball after Shahbaz Ahmed struck thrice in one over and managed to defend a total of 149 against SRH Chasing a total of 150, the SRH openers – David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha – got off to a cautious start, scoring 13 in the first two overs. Mohamed Siraj built the pressure early on with the new ball, forcing Saha to play a rash shot which went straight into the hands of Maxwell at backward point in the third over. However, SRH attacked the pace of Kyle Jamieson, smashing 17 off the 4th over with Warner and Manish Pandey hitting a six each. The SRH skipper shifted the gears and the fifty was up for the Sunrisers, inside the powerplay. Both – Pandey and Warner – looked extremely comfortable in the middle and put the pressure on the RCB spinners. The fifty-run partnership was up between the two as RCB continued to search for. the breakthrough At the halfway mark, SRH were 77/1 and were pacing the chase to perfection. Warner, leading from the front, then notched up his 49th half-century in IPL. However, Jamieson provided RCB a much-needed breakthrough as he dismissed Warner in the 14th over. SRH though were still in control of the chase, with 42 needed from the final five overs. RCB skipper Kohli then handed the ball to Shahbaz Ahmed in the 17th over and it turned out to be a match-changing move as the left-arm spinner scalped 3 wickets in an over. He dismissed Jonny Bairstow and Pandey on consecutive deliveries and then got Abdul Samad out on the final delivery, with all three batsmen attempting to clear the ropes. The pressure built on SRH as they further lost two wickets. First, Harshal Patel got rid of Vijay Shankar, courtesy a running catch from Kohli in the 18th over and later, Siraj dismissed Jason Holder after he holed out in the deep in the penultimate over. Harshal Patel had 16 runs to defend in the final over. While he bowled a no-ball, he kept his composure and scalped two wickets, helping RCB seal a stunning 6-run win. Earlier, RCB, who were put in to bat, made one change to their playing XI, bringing in Devdutt Padikkal in place of Rajat Patidar. While Kohli opened his account with a boundary straight down the ground, Padikkal struck a couple of fours on the other end. However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed the left-hander with a back of a length delivery. All-rounder Ahmed joined Kohli, who played some stylish flicks, pushing RCB to 47-1 at the end of the powerplay. Nadeem came in to bowl his second over and got rid of Ahmed after he deposited the left-arm spinner’s delivery to Rashid Khan, who took a fine running catch in the outfield, giving SRH their second wicket. RCB had to switch back to defence, with Maxwell and Kohli building a steady partnership and were going at 6 runs per over until the half-way mark. Maxwell decided he’d had enough as the right-hander smacked 2 sixes and a four off Nadeem while Kohli creamed a four as the two scored 22 runs off the 11th over. However, SRH managed to scalp a big wicket of Kohli after the right-hander top edged one into the outfield where Vijay Shankar did a remarkable job to complete the catch. The Kohli dismissal was followed by another breakthrough, as Rashid Khan got AB de Villiers out for 1 in the 14th over to push RCB on the backfoot. With 5 overs to go, the SRH bowling attack had the majority of work done and was incredibly complimented by the outfielders with the sharp catches. Washington Sundar fell victim to yet another outstanding grab by SRH after Manish Pandey held on to one diving forward, helping Rashid get his second wicket. While Maxwell kept the boundaries coming, he was running out of partners after Natarajan dismissed Daniel Christian for 1. Jamieson played a helping hand to Maxwell, smashing 2 boundaries before he was dismissed by Holder in the final over of the innings. However, Maxwell managed to make the most of the Holder over, smashing 13 runs as he brought up his first half-century for RCB as well as of the season. The right-hander was dismissed off the final delivery of the innings after guiding RCB to 149/8. Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 149/8 in 20 overs (Glenn Maxwell 59, Virat Kohli 33; Jason Holder 3/30) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 143/9 in 20 overs (David Warner 54, Manish Pandey 38; Shahbaz Ahmed 3/7) by 6 runs