Chennai: Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six runs in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.RCB managed only 149 for eight after being asked to bat first. In reply, SRH were stopped at 143 for nine.
Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner led from the front with a 37-ball 54, while Manish Pandey contributed 38.
The two added 83 runs for the second wicket and helped their side close in on the target of 150, but left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed snared three wickets to change the complexion of the game.
For RCB, Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell top-scored with 59 off 41 balls at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
The SRH bowlers produced a disciplined performance with leg-spinner Rashid Khan returning very impressive figures of 2/18 in his quota of four overs. The most successful bowler for SRH, however, was Jason Holder as he picked up 3/30.
SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper David Warner hit out at his team’s batsmen for playing cross-batted shots against left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed and not building partnerships after SRH lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“A very big, bitter pill to swallow. We needed two set batsmen at the end, but we failed to do that. We needed to build a partnership and play proper cricket shots,” said Warner after the match.
I was quite disappointed with how we went — cross-batted shots against left-arm orthodox (Shahbaz Ahmed. It hurts,” added Warner.
Warner himself scored an impressive half-century, 54 off 37 balls, and set Hyderabad on the path to victory. However, the remaining batsmen floundered.
Hyderabad lost track in the 17th over when three of their hard-hitters, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey and Abdus Samad fell while trying to hit the ball for six against the turn of left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed. They all fell in one over, playing cross-batted shots.
Warner, however, is hopeful his team will do well in upcoming matches.
We know how to approach in the upcoming games. We have another three games here and I think the wickets are going to get better. We need minimum damage in the first six overs and play simple cricket, added Warner who said that teams batting second should have won all the games in Chennai even though they struggled to chase modest targets.