Hyderabad: Rajat Patidar’s explosive innings stood in stark contrast to Virat Kohli’s measured approach as Royal Challengers Bengaluru put up 206 for seven against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL here Thursday.
Patidar (50 off 20 balls) did the bulk of the work in his 65-run stand with Kohli (51 off 43) who was focused on giving the strike to his partner, an approach which was questioned by Sunil Gavaskar on air.
Cameron Green (37 not out off 20) and Swapnil Singh (12 off 6) came up with timely strikes in the death overs to take RCB past 200.
RCB were all guns blazing in the first three overs with Kohli and Faf du Plessis (25 off 12) going hard at the SRH bowlers, including opposition skipper Pat Cummins who conceded 19 runs in his first over.
However, from 43 for no loss of the first 18 balls, RCB could only reach 61 for 1 by the end of the powerplay.
Du Plessis was deceived by a slow short ball from T Natarajan to be caught by Aiden Markram at mid-off.
Will Jacks (6 off 9) went for a wild slog sweep off a flighted delivery from leg-spinner Mayank Markande but could not make contact to be bowled, leaving RCB 65 for two in seven overs.
That was when Kohli and Patidar got together to take the innings forward.
The spinners were able to put pressure on the batters after the powerplay. As Kohli went for rotation of strike in this tough phase for RCB, Patidar broke the shackles by smashing Markande for four straight sixes in the 11th over.
The first two hits were down the ground before Patidar read Markande’s googly to send it over mid-wicket. The fourth and final six came off a wide and loopy delivery which Patidar dispatched over extra cover.
Such was the contrast in the style of approaches that Patidar took 19 balls to reach his fifty, while IPL’s leading run-getter Kohli took 37.
SRH, who have amassed 250-plus totals thrice this season, would be expected to gun down the target.
PTI
