Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 6 runs at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday in Match 6 of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League.
RCB put on 149 on the scoreboard after being asked to bat first courtesy of a half-century by Glenn Maxwell (his first in the IPL since 2016) and skipper Virat Kohli’s innings of 33 runs off 29 balls. Rashid Khan and Jason Holder were the star bowlers for Sunrisers Hyderabad as David Warner’s side was left with an achievable task of chasing a target of 150 runs.
Mohammed Siraj ensured Sunrisers endured a tough start to the run-chase as he gave away only 2 runs in the first two overs whilst dismissing Wridhimann Saha as well. Manish Pandey and skipper Warner stitched together an 83-run partnership in just 11 overs putting Hyderabad in pole position to win the match.
Some excellent bowling changes from Kohli and brilliant death bowling from Shahbaz Ahmed and Harshal Patel allowed RCB to mount an unpredictable comeback defending a total of fewer than 150 runs for the first time since 2008.
In the post-match interview, Virat Kohli hailed his team’s performance and said that the extra bowling options in the playing XI certainly helped in defending the small target.
He said:
“Not as exhausted as I am proud (of the team). It was a top game for us, the wicket is going to get challenging, we saw that yesterday. You are never really out of the game in these conditions. We have more bowling options and those extra bowling options made those impact performances in the middle overs. I told the guys don’t think that we struggled to get to 149. I believed we could win with 150. If it was tough for us, it will be tough for them as well. Chasing under pressure and you lose wickets, the game can swing anywhere.”
The Indian national cricket team skipper noted that it’s tougher to bat on the pitch in the latter half of the innings and hailed Maxwell for his brilliant innings. Kohli also said that the team is not over-excited and has a clarity of plans for this IPL season.
The 32-year old said:
“The wicket was never a belter and our execution under pressure was spot on. It kept getting tougher and tougher with the old ball. I tried to build the momentum with few boundaries in the powerplay. I think Maxi’s innings was the difference for us. To be very honest, we are not over-excited with wins this season. We have clarity of plans. We traded Harshal from Delhi, gave him a specific role and he’s doing an outstanding job for us. We are taking one game at a time, we are enjoying playing with each other. Need to be professional and do the job on the field.”