A fine bowling effort from impact player Swapnil Singh, Karn Sharma, and Cameron Green helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to register only second win of the season, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 35 runs at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. All three bowlers picked up two wickets each to restrict SRH to 171/8. Despite the win, however, RCB still sits 10th in the points table. For a team that has breached the 250-run mark thrice this season, the target of 207 was very gettable but the in-form SRH batters failed to deliver on this occasion.

Batting first, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis gave RCB a firing start, adding 48 runs for the opening wicket. T. Natarajan dismissed attacking Du Plessis (25) in his first over of the spell. Mayank Markande then bowled a brilliantly slower one to get rid of Will Jacks (6), rattling the stumps. However, Kohli and Rajat Patidar added 65 runs in 33 balls to stay ahead. Patidar played an aggressive knock, smashing Markande for 4 sixes in an over.

Patidar reached his half-century in style but perished immediately. Jaydev Unadkat delivered a low full toss to remove Patidar. In his next over, the left-arm pacer dismissed the Orange Cap holder Kohli for 51. Green’s 37-run knock guided RCB to a challenging total of 206/7 in 20 overs.

To everyone’s surprise, Jacks bowled the first over for RCB and was successful as he dismissed the most dangerous Travis Head for just 1. But Abhishek Sharma played his shots to score runs quickly. Moments later, Yash Dayal removed the hard-hitting Abhishek (31), thanks to Dinesh Karthik who took a fine catch. Swapnil then struck twice in his first over, removing Aiden Markram (7) and six-hitting monster Henrich Klaasen (7) to put SRH in deep trouble. Pat Cummins played a cameo of 31 while Shahbaz Ahmed played an anchoring innings, 37-ball 40. Those knocks were not enough for SRH to reach the target.