RCB thumps SRH with an all-round effort

They say that revenge is served best when cold and RCB just made a clinical show of it as they hammered the Sunrisers Hyderabad by a staggering 67 runs, penning down domination in the brightest of liveries.

Winning an important toss, Faf opted to bat on a surface that looked pretty conducive to the batters. Much to RCB's surprise, they lost Virat Kohli for a golden duck as the former skipper chipped away at a flighted delivery straight into the arms of Kane Williamson.

With Kohli gone early, it was a herculean onus on the young shoulders of Rajat Patidar to play the anchoring knock while Faf decided to open up his arsenal.

After shaking off the initial hiccups, the Challengers hunkered down to business as Patidar and his skipper started picking on the Sunrisers with no reservation whatsoever. The duo attacked from both ends as their counterparts would scramble, stutter and run for shelter as it rained boundaries in Wankhede.

The duo stitched together a crucial stand of 104 runs before Patidar would get out, trying to conjure a big hit en route to his second half-century of the season. Despite the fall of Rajat, Faf and Maxwell kept the pressure on the bowlers intact.

Despite not being able to amass the all-important momentum, the duo kept the scoreboard ticking with regular boundaries and some lightning-fast running between the wickets.

Maxwell's decent start met an untimely end as Aiden Markram would complete a comfortable take in the deep to set up the stage for DK-mania.

As Faf seemed to be tiring at the other end, completely drenched in sweat in the midst of Mumbai's sweltering afternoon heat, DK would play out his first two balls pretty harmlessly before getting lucky with Rahul Tripathi grassing a regulation catch. That was Karthik's cue to punish the Sunrisers and he did it in style.

He would conjure a match-defining 30 off just 8 balls, that would leave Fazalhaq Farooqi with an extremely sour taste in his mouth on his IPL debut. Thanks to Karthik's mad striking, RCB would close their innings at a momentous 192 on a pitch where 170 seemed to be an at par total.

Even before the Sunrisers could realise what had hit them, they were two down with just 1 run on the board. An electric effort from Shahbaz would leave Kane scrambling for the crease as the bails were dislodged. Despite being close, going by the cricketing rules, Kane had to take the long walk back to the pavilion.

Maxwell would then deal an even more deafening blow as he would claim Abhishek Sharma for a duck with the latter totally foxed by the line of the Australian. Even though Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram would put up a decent show to calm down the initial jitters, the effort seemed to be a lacklustre crawl than a steady dive that would allow them to inch close to the total.

Once Markram was gone, it was going to be a dead drop into the nadir of despair for the Sunrisers despite Pooran trying to counter RCB’s sting. The Caribbean dasher would eventually fall to the turn of the Lankan wizard as he was just warming up for an exciting night ahead.

Pooran and Markram were two of his early exploits while Hasaranga would come back to conjure another magical over that would see him claim his best figures in the IPL and move to within 1 wicket of former RCB campaigner, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Things went from bad to worse for the Sunrisers as Josh Hazlewood would chip in with another seraphic spell to cripple their chase. Harshal Patel would come forth with another miserly stint where he would clean up Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a slower delivery, securing the seventh win for the Challengers, propelling them to the fourth position in the points table.