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SRH do it again to defend low score in IPL 2018

Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their last seven wickets for 34 runs in four overs, but their bowling attack bailed them out again to put Royal Challengers Bangalore on the brink of elimination.

Kane Williamson was front and centre in Sunrisers' innings, making 56 off 39 balls on a two-paced pitch, where most other batsmen struggled. He later dropped Virat Kohli on 33, and fell on his back, but came away smiling in the end.

RCB's chase of 147 fell apart when Kohli and AB De Villiers fell in successive overs for the second game in a row and even though Colin De Grandhomme struck some late blows, the asking rate and the skill of Sunrisers' attack was too much to overcome. Bhuvneshwar Kumar defended 11 runs off the last over to help Sunrisers open up a two-point lead at the top of the table.

The straightjacket

RCB's bowlers quickly read the Hyderabad pitch, and ventured cross-seamers and a variety of slower balls. One such cross-seamer from Tim Southee stuck in the pitch and floored Alex Hales' middle stump in the third over. Moeen Ali, who was making his IPL debut, and the seamers straightjacketed Shikhar Dhawan by offering very little room. Only three out of 19 balls he faced finished wide outside off. He laboured to 13 before splicing a Mohammed Siraj short ball to deep square leg. Kohli made life more difficult for the batsmen with smart field placements. He posted himself at short cover for Manish Pandey, who simply chipped a catch to the RCB captain. It was Yuzvendra Chahal's first wicket away from home in IPL 2018.

Williamson rises above another tough pitch

On a similar sluggish pitch in Jaipurlast week, Williamson made a masterful 63 off 43 balls. He may not have the raw power but his ability to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps makes him such a good player even on bad pitches. On Monday night, he got his eye in and then forced the pace. He scored 31 off his first 29 balls before cranking up the tempo and hitting 25 off his next nine balls. Umesh Yadav, ultimately, had him holing out to long leg but not before the Sunrisers captain had brought up his fifth fifty of the season. The shot of the night came when he fetched a wide legbreak and slog-swept it against the break over the midwicket boundary. RCB came back at the death courtesy two late wickets from Siraj, and went into the break with momentum.

Watch Match Highlights Here:⬇️

                     

After a cameo from Parthiv Patel, Kohli launched the chase with a flurry of boundaries, including a fierce short-arm jab through midwicket off the left-arm spinner. By the end of the Powerplay, RCB had shaved 55 off the target. Enter Rashid Khan, who was bowling to Kohli for the first time in T20s. His sixth ball to Kohli drew an outside edge, but Williamson dropped a simple catch at slip. On 33 then, Kohli could add just six more before Yusuf Pathan plucked a one-handed catch that he initially misjudged at short third man off Shakib.

Rashid's first ball to de Villiers drew a review for caught behind from Sunrisers, but he survived as replays showed no bat on his leg-side swipe. Then came a fizzing legbreak, which de Villiers edged past short third man. Then came the wrong'un, which he chopped onto his stumps. For the second time in successive games, RCB's big two had fallen in successive overs.

Siddarth Kaul then had Moeen feathering one behind to leave RCB at 84 for 5 in the 12th over. It took a period of calm from Mandeep Singh and Colin de Grandhomme to bring it don to 39 off 24 balls. Williamson summoned Rashid, and he was welcomed with two muscular hits for six from de Grandhomme. Off the next over, Bhuvneshwar was picked off for a boundary to narrow the equation to 19 off 12 balls. Kaul and Bhuvneshwar, however, closed the game out with a slew of yorkers, giving nothing away to the set pair at the crease.

The crucial clash between MI and RCB will see the two teams in the bottom half of the table face off.

Three-time finalist, RCB will fight against the defending champions Mumbai Indians in an important clash of IPL 2018. The crucial clash between MI and RCB will see the two teams in the bottom half of the table face off.

RCB as a home team will be looking to pull things back as they didn't get momentum yet in this year’s IPL 2018. They tried with big and low batting line up but remained all in vain. RCB's big worry is their bowling line-up which didn't prove to be a great in the death overs. More ofen, their fielding let them down in the last couple of matches. But they have capability to win games with these circumstances. RCB played last match without their key player Ab de Villiers who is in a great hitting form. Hopefully he will play this time against Mumbai Indians.

Both Teams have not produced winning combinations yet in this season

On the other hand, Mumbai Indians are not doing well in this season as they lost 5 games. But they won their match against the top table team Chennai Super Kings which will give them great boost up. Mumbai's captain Rohit Sharma came up the order and win the game for his side. Mumbai's key problems are their top order and lower order batting. Although their top order performed in last couple of matches but their lower order particularly All-rounders are not doing well in this season. They lost wickets in last overs that's why they didn't get good scores after great start.

Weather

The temperature should be around 30 degrees Celsius. The humidity levels will hover at around the 51% mark. There is no forecast of rain. The weather will be a bit hazy with a cloud cover of 39%.

Pitch report

With a bit of rain in last two days, the pitch offered during the game might be on the softer side. However, spinners might get some help from the surface in the second innings.

Head-to-head

MI 14 - RCB 8. MI have a good edge over RCB with fourteen wins in comparison to eight wins for the latter.

Important Stats

1 – Rohit Sharma needs to hit one more size to complete 300 sixes in the history of T20 cricket. He will become the seventh player in the history of T20 cricket to hit 300 or more sixes.

3 – AB de Villiers needs to hit three more sixes to surpass Rohit Sharma on the list of most IPL sixes. Smashing these sixes, de Villiers will acquire the second position on the list of most IPL sixes.

6 – Virat Kohli needs six more sixes to surpass MS Dhoni on the list of most IPL sixes. Smashing these sixes, Virat Kohli will acquire the fifth position on the list of most IPL sixes.

11 – Virat Kohli is just eleven runs behind Suresh Raina to become the all-time highest run-getter in the history of IPL.

Probably XIs 

Royal Challengers Bangalore:

 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Manan Vohra, 5 Mandeep Singh, 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 Tim Southee, 8 M Ashwin, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammed Siraj

Mumbai Indians: 

1 Suryakumar Yadav, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Rohit Sharma (capt), 4 Ishan Kishan (wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Ben Cutting, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Mayank Markande, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Previous meeting

Rohit Sharma's 94 off 52 propelled Mumbai to 213 for 6. With wickets tumbling at the other end, Virat Kohli's rather more pedestrian 92 off 62 ended up as an exercise to minimise Royal Challengers' net-run-rate damage.