Forgettable evening for RCB as SRH bowlers deliver emphatic win

In a marathon league you win some, you lose some, you shine brighter than the sun on days and then there are instances where your cause never sees the light of the day at all, and today was one such day for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

On a surface where the ball drifted left and right, Faf lost the all-important toss and that was just the beginning of the horror that was to unfold at the Brabourne Stadium. After a silent first over, RCB suddenly found themselves wobbling right at the cliff of decadence with Marco Jansen breathing fire.

He bagged Faf in the very second ball of his over with a peach that saw the delivery landing in the line of the off-stump and angling back slightly to leave the former South African skipper undone. This was just the genesis of the imminent nightmare and Kohli compiled RCB’s misery, piling up a second golden duck, trying to play an outrageous straight drive that flew into the safe arms of Aiden Markram at first slip.

By the time the Sunrisers were done with their torment, the Challengers found themselves skittled out for a paltry 68 with Natarajan and Jansen running amok through the batting lineup of RCB.

Coming out to chase 69, the Sunrisers were off to an absolute flyer thanks to young Abhishek Sharma, and Kane Williamson.

Harshal Patel got the solitary breakthrough of the night as Abhishek Sharma couldn’t keep his belligerent effort down with Anuj Rawat grabbing a sitter.

It was a tough outing for the RCB batters and in a marathon league like this, there are times when even big names crumble under pressure and on one such Saturday night, the Challengers couldn’t gather the much-needed firepower to deny glory to the Orange Army.