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Sports

IPL 2018, SRH vs RCB: Sunrisers Hyderabad continue winning run against Royal Challengers Bangalore

indianexpress.com

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An umpiring error

It is not often that a game spanning 40 overs comes down to something that happened in the second over of the match. Umesh Yadav’s ball down the leg-side flicked Shikhar Dhawan’s pad on its way to the wicketkeeper, which didn’t prevent umpire Virender Sharma to signal a wide. The extra ball in the over was lofted by Alex Hales over mid-off for a boundary. The victory margin for SRH over RCB on Monday? Five runs.

One-man band

The dab to third man is a pretty unglamorous shot. With a man on the boundary in that region, all it earns a batsman a single. However, with a slip rarely in place in a T20 game, it is the shot that Kane Williamson employs to get his innings going. In a batting line-up that relies overwhelmingly on its captain, the Kiwi craftsman is often at the crease after an early wicket, and he can’t afford to take a risk early on in his innings.

Williamson did exactly that after the early departure of Alex Hales, and Shikhar Dhawan’s dismissal soon after. Apart from the run to third man, his other signature shot early on was the twirl of the bat which sent a short-of-length ball outside off-stump to a gap on the leg-side. Apart from a few juicy deliveries down the leg-side, they were his main scoring options. But Williamson is too classy a player to miss out when offered a half-volley outside off-stump, as he showed his compatriot Tim Southee.

When spin came along in the form of Yuzvendra Chahal, he pulled a short one through midwicket and later, slog-swept the leg-spinner over wide long-on for six. With the run rate not high enough for his liking, he even showed his aerial prowess against the speedster, hitting Umesh Yadav over mid-off for a boundary.

But a one-man band can produce hit music only so many times. With not much melody coming from the other end, after Williamson was dismissed with four over to go, the rest of the batting showed very little harmony against a much-improved Bangalore death-bowling pairing of Mohammad Siraj and Southee.

Chahal’s Test-match special

It was a dismissal that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in a Test match. Chahal gave the ball just the optimum amout of loop as it drifted from off to leg. Manish Pandey, as is his wont, made way by getting his front foot out of the way to hit through the off-side. But the ball dipped on him and spun just enough to induce a weak aerial shot, which landed in RCB skipper Virat Kohli’s lap at short cover. Judging by the celebrations and the cheeky smiles, the dismissal may have been pre-planned.

Chahal almost snared a much bigger fish a little later. He foxed Williamson with a similar delivery, only this time the New Zealander missed his attempted off-drive as wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel whipped off the bails. But the SRH captain was alert enough to get his foot inside the crease in time.

Siraj Khan rises

It has been a trial by fire for Mohammad Siraj in this IPL. He was part of the bowling line-up that failed to defend over 200 runs against Chennai. But Kohli persisted with him in the death overs, and he has consistently improved. On Monday, he checked Williamson and Shakib Al Hasan who were looking for quick runs. Early on, he had Dhawan caught on the fence with a short ball. Later, as Shakib tried incessantly to hit a big shot, Siraj remained a step ahead, often bowling short and away from the Bangladeshi’s hitting arc. Siraj — who ironically hails from Hyderabad — got three wickets and put the skids under the Sunrisers’ late charge.

A bag of tricks

Rashid Khan is not likely to bowl to Virat Kohli in Afghanistan’s first ever Test match next month, as the Indian skipper will be away on county duty with Surrey, getting valuable game time ahead of the Test series in England. Hence, their clash on Monday was only time one was to witness them against each other. And the teenager seemed up for the battle.

He didn’t get any support from his fielders, though. He had Manan Vohra dropped by Siddarth Kaul at deep midwicket, and in his second over, had Williamson drop a sitter off Kohli at first slip. The RCB skipper was in ominous form, and had taken Shakib, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kaul to the cleaners, before an uncharacteristically poor shot led to a catch ny Yusuf Pathan at short third man off the Bangladesh all-rounder.

That prompted Rashid to flick the switch as he had the other RCB star, AB de Villiers at sixes and sevens. A thick outside edge went to the boundary before the South African great couldn’t read a googly to be castled. Rashid got hit by Colin de Grandhomme for two sixes in his final over, but the SRH bowlers bounced back to do what they do best — defend another modest total.

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