IPL 2018, SRH vs RCB: 5 talking points

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) nearly pulled off an upset of sorts before the high-flying Sunrisers Hyderabad came roaring back in trademark style to defend a total of 146 on their home turf at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in Hyderabad to continue their impressive showing in IPL 2018.

Brilliant captaincy from Virat Kohli, who was well backed by his bowling unit, saw RCB restrict Kane Williamson's side to an under-par score, with the skipper leading from the front for the hosts with a well-made half-century.

In reply, RCB started off brightly, helped by a couple of dropped chances, before a string of wickets derailed their run chase and despite a good partnership between Colin de Grandhomme and Mandeep Singh towards the end, SRH held their nerve to win the contest by 5 runs.

Here are the 5 major talking points from today's contest.

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#5 Virat Kohli's impressive captaincy

Virat Kohli has had a tough time in the IPL as skipper of RCB and the 2018 season has been no different as he has struggled to get the best out of his star-studded side.

The game against SRH, however, saw Kohli at his best as a captain as he mixed up his bowlers nicely and set up the field to a well planned out strategy.

What was good to see from an RCB perspective was that the bowlers also delivered on what the skipper was expecting from them with the likes of Mohammad Siraj and Moeen Ali, who was playing his first game of the tournament, impressing with their displays.

#4 Kane Williamson leads SRH fightback

Williamson played a captain's knock to help Sunrisers' Hyderabad recover from the loss of early wickets

With the RCB bowlers backed up Virat Kohli's impressive captaincy with their disciplined approach, SRH were struggling to get going. To add to that, they also lost both their hard-hitting opening batsmen - Shikhar Dhawan and Alex Hales - within the powerplay overs itself with just 38 runs on the board.

This called for the hosts to consolidate and play sensibly to keep wickets in hand for the death overs and skipper Kane Williamson showed them the way with a superb knock.

With little room to free his arms, Williamson was forced to rely on singles and doubles at the start forging a crucial partnership for the side along with Shakib al Hasan.

However, Williamson upped the ante towards the end with a couple of big sixes to complete his half-century off just 34 balls.

#3 Yusuf Pathan's one-handed screamer

Yusuf Pathan's moment of brilliance to get rid of Virat Kohli turned the match on its head

The last thing that Sunrisers Hyderabad needed while defending a low total was for the fielding to let them down but that just seemed the order of the day when Siddharth Kaul and Kane Williamson dropped a couple of gilt-edged chances to let RCB off the hook at the start of their innings.

However, Yusuf Pathan, fielding at the short third man region, with his right hand at full stretch, showed the younger lot how it's done by plucking one out of thin air to send the danger man Virat Kolhi back to the pavilion.

The RCB skipper was looking good with his aggressive batting and the match looked to be slipping out of SRH's hands but Pathan's screamer turned the match around completely.

#2 RCB have only themselves to blame

De Villiers failed to deliver yet again in a run-chase for RCB

After a fine display by the bowling unit, the RCB openers Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel started off aggressively in the powerplay, with the skipper, in particular, looking in impressive touch.

Patel raced to 20 off 12 balls before falling to Shakib Al Hasan but Kohli carried forward the good start at the other end dismissing the left-arm spinner in his next over for a couple of boundaries and a six.

Having scored 55 in the powerplay overs, RCB looked well on their way to a comfortable victory and luck also seemed to be on their side with Siddarth Kaul and Williamson dropping a couple of gilt-edged chances.

However, the RCB batsmen failed to capitalize on the chances as the likes of Manan Vohra and AB de Villiers tried to play a shot too many only to end up gifting their wicket to the opposition.

Kohli can consider himself unlucky with Yusuf Pathan taking a blinder to get rid of the RCB skipper but it was painful to see that Colin de Grandhomme and Mandeep Singh couldn't finish off the job for the side despite a solid partnership.

#1 SRH and art of defending low totals

Bhuvi conceded just six runs in his final over and dismissed Grandhomme off the final ball of the innings

The SRH bowling unit has earned plaudits with their impressive outings at the 2018 IPL and what has been particularly impressive is the ease with which they have been able to defend under-par scores against the best of batting line-ups in the IPL.

Kane Williamson's side defended 118 against defending champions Mumbai Indians on their home turf at the Wankhede Stadium while they also managed to silence the likes of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul on the way to defending 132 against Kings XI Punjab in their very next game.

Today's match saw the side once again come out on top in a low-scoring contest and what was particularly impressive was the fact that they managed to do so even when their premier bowler Rashid Khan was not on the top of his game.

While Rashid conceded 31 runs off his four overs and Shakib al Hasan 36 off his quota, it was the seamers who made the difference for SRH with the trio of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, and Sidharth Kaul continuing with their fine showing so far.

They picked up a wicket each but what was more important was the way they put a brake on the RCB scoring and ultimately made them fall short of the target with Bhuvi proving that he is back to his best with a fine last over.

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