Rajat Patidar (50 off 20) and Virat Kohli (51 from 43) helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru post 206/7 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in 20 overs on Thursday.
Opting to bat first, RCB openers Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis picked up boundaries at ease as they raced to 43/0 in three overs. But then, T Natarajan removed du Plessis for 25 off 12 and Shahbaz Nadeem was introduced.
That is when the slowdown began, especially from Kohli. The fourth over from the spinner saw just two runs and the seventh from Mayank Marakande had four singles, and the wicket of Will Jacks. Kohli, who was batting on 22 from 10 balls, went to 42 from 29, adding just 20 runs in 19 balls without a boundary. Through this phase, it was Patidar who kept the innings going. He hit a four off Ahmed and then smashed Markande for a six.
After another four against Jaydev Unadkat, Patidar went bonkers. The MP batter hit four consecutive sixes off Markande, racing to 46 off just 15 balls. Although Pat Cummins bowled a boundary-less over, Patidar brought up his fifty in just 19 balls. However, he did not last long. The middle-order batter fell in the same over to Unadkat. Kohli's half century, meanwhile, came off 37 balls, but he too got out to Unadkat in his next over.
Between overs 12-15, Bengaluru managed just 20 runs in 18 balls while losing three wickets. In came Cameron Green and he got going without wasting any time. Four boundaries came in the Cummins over with Green and Mahipal Lomror putting their foot down and accelerating. Even as the latter got out, Green hammered three fours off Cummins in the penultimate over. Swapnil Singh hit a couple more in the final over as RCB finished with 206/7 in 20 overs.