Hyderabad, May 23 (IANS) After a devastating 55-run defeat in a run fest at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday, RCB skipper Rajat Patidar conceded his team were no match for the top order fire of SRH. The big target set by SRH, “was still quite big,” he said following the loss of what had seemed an unassailable target.

“The top five (SRH) batters batted brilliantly, they dominated us,” Patidar said after the match. “The top priority was to be on the front foot, but 255 was a huge score, it was very high.”

Batting first on winning the toss, SRH, once again, produced a batting master class to reach a mammoth 255/4 in 20 overs. They were on their way thanks to a phenomenal 56-run inning of only 22 balls from Abhishek Sharma, as well as Travis Head’s 16-ball-26, while the anchored provided by Ishan Kishan’s scintillating 79 of 46 deliveries, supported by Heinrich Klaasen’s fast-paced 51 of 24 balls taking them to over 250, and then, a quick 12-ball-29 from Nitish Kumar Reddy took them to over 255.

The pacers for the Royal Challengers suffered a severe batting session, where none of the top bowlers gave over 12 runs per over, with Rasikh Salam picking two wickets and Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya getting one each. In reply, Venkatesh Iyer got RCB off to a positive start with a blazing 19-ball 44, but once he along with Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal were out, the charge fizzled out. Though a solid 39-ball 56 from Rajat Patidar and an unbeaten 41 from Krunal saw them close the gap slightly, the required rate remained astronomically high.

Rajat Patidar believed that once the SRH bowlers started varying their paces, the wicket did become challenging. “Not really, the slow bouncer was gripping. They executed the bouncers and yorkers quite well,” the skipper replied when asked if the surface has died down a little. “Hyderabad is a good batting wicket but the moment you start delivering the slow bouncer, it becomes tough for a batter.” Eshan Malinga was the star of the bowling for SRH with two for 33, with Sakib Hussain and Head providing a wicket each as they secured the dominant win in their closing matches.

–IANS

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