Royals Challengers Bangalore are hosting the table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 51st match of IPL 2018 at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday (May 17).
Facing the pressure of a must-win game, the RCB batsmen responded with utmost ferocity to score a mammoth 218/6 in 20 overs.
Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and invited Bangalore to bat first. RCB didn’t get an ideal start as Sandeep Sharma removed Parthiv Patel in the very first over for just 1. Virat Kohli (12 runs off 11 balls) also failed to replicate the heroics of his last two innings courtesy Rashid Khan’s well -disguised googly.
SRH bowlers must have been heaving a sigh of relief after getting rid of the RCB captain but little did they know that the certain AB de Villiers will dismantle them in the subsequent overs. De Villiers along with Moeen Ali put on a 107-run stand for the third wicket to put RCB in a commanding position.
Unfortunately for RCB, they lost both AB and Moeen in the final over of Rashid, who claimed 3 for 27 in his 4 overs. While the Proteas batting genius scored 69 runs off 39 balls (12 fours and 1 six), Ali made a scintillating 65 off 34 balls (2 fours and 6 sixes).
Thanks to the blitz in the last few overs from Colin de Grandhomme (40 runs off 17 balls) and Sarfaraz Khan (22 runs off 8 balls), RCB eventually ended up with a 200+ total on the board.
Twitterati were impressed to see the batting clinic of De Villiers and Moeen Ali while they also praised the brilliant bowling exhibition of Rashid Khan.
Here are some of the top tweets after the first innings:
And Kohli won’t be able to get his own back against the Afghan spinners in the Test coming up...#RCBvSRH
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) May 17, 2018
That was a 10 from @ABdeVilliers17. 6 too few for that shot!!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 17, 2018
So Rashid Khan gets both Kohli and ABD. Priceless talent!
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 17, 2018
Feel sorry for all the bowlers... Pls no one should blame them.. Pls remember they are all bowling to a freak and a phenomenal batsman called ABRAHAM DE VILLIERS.. Pls pray for the bowlers
— Kartik Murali (@kartikmurali) May 17, 2018
Yesssss Moooooo ! #RCB
— Danielle Wyatt (@Danni_Wyatt) May 17, 2018
You can’t keep The Khan away from the action....three wickets. Kohli, AB and Moeen. Worth a lot more. #RCBvSRH #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 17, 2018
Still don’t think the #IPL teams realise how good many of England’s players are at the White ball game these days ... RR took along time to Open with @josbuttler ... RCB took forever to get Mo Ali in the team ... Many more could have a huge impact ... #JustSaying
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) May 17, 2018