When Faf du Plessis called right at the toss and elected to bat, he and his Royal Challengers Bangalore batters did more than well to put on a total of 192 for 3 against SunRisers Hyderabad.
Chasing a mammoth total, SRH had to get off to a start to take their chase into top gear as the innings progressed. Unfortunately for SRH, they lost two early wickets and it was now up to Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi to rally the team.
Both batters took their time and when the bad deliveries came they dispatched them in the distance.
The running between the wickets was superb and Tripathi was unleashing the big shots once every over. The rebuild was very much on and off the first ball of the 9th over, the batters took a single off Warindu Hasaranga's first ball to bring up their 50-run partnership.
The leggie struck the very next ball as he took out Markram, caught while attempting a slog sweep.
Tripathi then found an ally in Nicholas Pooran. The boundaries and sixes were flowing thick and fast and within no time they had put on 38 runs before Hasaranga struck again.
Coming back for his second spell, Hasaranga foxed Pooran with a googly. Pooran tried to slap it over mid-wicket, mishit and was caught at short third man. Hasaranga then had Jagadeesha Suchith stumped for 2.
Hasaranga bowled a superb final over of his spell taking out Shashank Singh and Umran Malik for a double-wicket maiden and a five-wicket haul -- his first in T20s.
Hasaranga's first two strikes changed the complexion of the game. With Markram's wicket a huge partnership was averted. Pooran's dismissal nipped a growing partnership in the bud.
SRH could not rise up after these blows and it was only time before they would be struggling to keep pace with the required run rate and eventually lose two valuable points.
