Rajat Patidar's explosive fifty and a collective effort from the spinners set up Royal Challengers Bengaluru's 35-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL in Hyderabad on Thursday, bringing an end to their six-match losing streak. (As It Happened | Scorecard)
Patidar's 50 off 20 balls stood in stark contrast to Virat Kohli's measured 51 off 43 balls as RCB put up 206 for seven after opting to bat.
For a team that has breached the 250-run mark thrice season, the target was very gettable but the in-form SRH batting line-up could not deliver on this occasion and ended at 171 for eight in 20 overs.
It was a much-needed result for RCB, who lost seven of their first eight games. The loss was SRH's third in eight matches.
Considering the effectiveness of the spinners in the first innings, RCB opened the bowling with part-time off-spinner Will Jacks. The English man had the destructive Travis Head (1 off 3) caught at third man to give RCB a massive boost.
Head's opening partner Abhishek Sharma (31 off 13) did entertain the home crowd until his attempted slog ended up in the hands of wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
Left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, making his RCB debut, struck twice in his first over removing the dangerous South Africa duo of Aiden Markram and Henrich Klaasen. While Markram missed a full toss to be adjudged lbw, Klaasen was caught at mid-on after mistiming a lofted drive, leaving SRH at 56 for four in five overs.
Leggie Karn Sharma then dismissed Nitish Reddy and Abdul Samad to shut the door on the opposition.
Earlier, Patidar did the bulk of the work in his 65-run stand with Kohli who was focused on giving the strike to his partner, an approach which was questioned by Sunil Gavaskar on air.
Cameron Green (37 not out off 20) and Swapnil Singh (12 off 6) came up with timely strikes in the death overs to take RCB past 200.
RCB were all guns blazing in the first three overs with Kohli and Faf du Plessis (25 off 12) going hard at the SRH bowlers, including opposition skipper Pat Cummins who conceded 19 runs in his first over.
However, from 43 for no loss of the first 18 balls, RCB could only reach 61 for 1 by the end of the powerplay.
Du Plessis was deceived by a slow short ball from T Natarajan to be caught by Aiden Markram at mid-off.
Will Jacks (6 off 9) went for a wild slog sweep off a flighted delivery from leg-spinner Mayank Markande but could not make contact to be bowled, leaving RCB 65 for two in seven overs.
That was when Kohli and Patidar got together to take the innings forward.
The spinners were able to put pressure on the batters after the powerplay. As Kohli went for rotation of strike in this tough phase for RCB, Patidar broke the shackles by smashing Markande for four straight sixes in the 11th over.
The first two hits were down the ground before Patidar read Markande's googly to send it over mid-wicket. The fourth and final six came off a wide and loopy delivery which Patidar dispatched over extra cover.
Such was the contrast in the style of approaches that Patidar took 19 balls to reach his fifty, while IPL''s leading run-getter Kohli took 37.
