IPL 2018, SRH vs RCB: 4 unnoticed things from the game

It was a must-win game for the Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore as they took on the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. RCB won the toss and elected to field first.

Hyderabad got off to a bad start as they lost Alex Hales in the 3rd over of their innings. Kane Williamson and Shakib Al Hasan stitched together a valuable 64 run partnership but RCB’s bowlers made a stellar comeback to bowl out the Sunrisers for 146 runs.

In reply, RCB got off to a steady start but lost their captain Kohli with 74 runs on the board. Colin de Grandhomme and Mandeep Singh did try to make a match out of it but the death bowling of Siddarth Kaul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar was just too good for them. In the end, Hyderabad won the contest by 5 runs.

We take a look at 4 unnoticed things that the fans might have missed during the game.

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#4 AB de Villiers disappoints again

AB de Villiers is amongst the best batsmen in the game. The South Africa showed glimpses of what he can do in the games against Delhi and Chennai. Thereafter, he got ill and missed a couple of games for the Bangalore side.

AB has looked a shadow of himself ever since his return. He was out stumped in the previous game against Chennai for a single. Today as well, he could not help his side chase down a small total in a crunch game. AB departed after making just 5 runs and left his side a mountain to climb against the impressive Sunrisers’ attack

#3 Virat Kohli and Rashid clash for the first time

It was deemed as the contest that would decide the result of the match. Virat Kohli, the world’s best batsman against Rashid Khan, the best bowler of the shortest format of the game.

However, viewers did not know that it was the first time these superstars of the game were up against each other. The Afghan leggie almost had the last laugh but Kane Williamson could not hold on to a thick edge from Kohli’s bat at slip. Before departing, Kohli managed to score 8 runs of the 9 balls he faced from Rashid Khan.

#2 Manish Pandey’s rapid fall continues

Manish Pandey was bought for huge bucks by the Sunrisers at the auctions. However, the Indian middle-order batsman has failed to do anything of note in this year’s IPL. Manish has scored a paltry 184 runs of the 10 matches that he has played this season. Today as well, he failed to trouble the scorers much, departing for just 5 runs.

Time is running out for Manish and Deepak Hooda must consider himself very unlucky if he is benched for the next game as well.

#1 Moeen Ali’s tight spell in his debut game

Moeen Ali was rewarded with his first game in the IPL today as he came in for the out of form Brendon McCullum. The English all-rounder opened the bowling and bowled a tight first over, giving away just 4 runs. He returned after the powerplay and sneaked in a couple of more overs. His final figures read 3-0-21-0. It was a good outing for Moeen with the ball as his tight off-spin did not give the batsmen any freebies and kept the pressure on.