IPL 2018: Match 51, RCB v SRH – AB de Villiers- Moeen Ali keep RCB in playoffs race with 14 runs win over SRH

Kane Williamson scored a brilliant 81 off 42 balls and kept his team in the chase until the end.

Kane Williamson scored a brilliant 81 off 42 balls and kept his team in the chase until the end | IANS

The 51st match of the IPL 2018 saw Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in a must-win encounter. SRH, the no.1 side in IPL points table has already made it into the playoffs and RCB needed a good win to push MI out of their way, for playoffs.

SRH skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and chose to bowl first, asking Virat Kohli’s RCB to put up a total and defend it. RCB went in with the same side, while SRH chose Basil Thampi in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

RCB’s start couldn't have been worse with Parthiv Patel getting out to Sandeep Sharma for one and then Rashid Khan fooling Virat Kohli with a wrong one and clean bowling him for 18. But then, AB de Villiers (69 in 39 balls; 12x4s, 1x6s) and Moeen Ali (65 in 34 balls, 2x4s, 6x6s) put on 105 runs in just 10 overs time. But Rashid got both of them out in succession to peg RCB back.

Rashid Khan picked 3 wickets and an amazing one handed catch | IANS

Colin de Grandhomme (40 in 17 balls, 4 sixes) and Sarfaraz Khan (22* in 8 balls) took RCB to 218/6 in 20 overs. Rashid Khan took a one-handed stunner at the boundary to dismiss De Grandhomme.

While Rashid Khan (3/27) and Siddharth Kaul (2/44) were the wicket-takers for SRH, Basil Thampi created an unwanted record of giving away 70 runs in 4 overs- the most expensive bowling figures in IPL history.

SRH started well with Shikhar Dhawan (18) and Hales adding 47 runs in first 5 overs, but Chahal removed Dhawan to give SRH chase a bit of shock. However, skipper Kane Williamson (81 from 42 balls; 7x4s, 5x6s) came to the party for SRH and along with Alex Hales (37 off 24 balls) first and then with Manish Pandey, took SRH closer to the target.

Tim Southee bowled one of the best spells in death overs under pressure to keep RCB floating high. In the end, Manish Pandey (62* off 38 balls) couldn't take SRH over the line despite having the hold of the match.

With a 14 runs win, RCB went to no.5 in the points table and have thrown the playoffs qualification wide open. SRH, on the other hand, would not mind this loss, but needs to reassess some aspects of their game.

BRIEF SCORES:
RCB 218/6 (AB DE VILLIERS 69; R KHAN 3/27) defeat RCB 204/3 (K WILLIAMSON 81; M ALI 1/21) by 14 runs

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 17 May, 2018

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