Royal Challengers Bangalore, who needed to win Saturday's outing against SunRisers Hyderabad, in Sharjah, to seal a berth in the playoffs, suffered their third consecutive defeat in IPL 2020.
Asked to bat first, RCB lost two TOP batsmen within the first four overs.
Devdutt Padikkal (5) and skipper Virat Kohli (7) departed in quick succession early, both falling to Sandeep Sharma (2 for 20).
In the third over, Padikkal missed the ball completely and it crashed into the stumps.
Sandeep struck again in the fifth over, bagging the big man's wicket for the seventh time in the IPL. The master batsman hit the ball straight to Kane Williamson, at short extra-cover.
A B de Villiers scored a run-a-ball 24 before perishing. Josh Philippe (32) got a start, but failed to capitalise on it.
The young Aussie was caught by Manish Pandey off Rashid Khan (1 for 24) in the next over as RBC slumped to 76 for four in 11.4 overs, their spirit broken.
Washington Sundar (21) and Gurkeerat Singh (15 not out) tried to resurrect the innings with a 30-run fifth wicket stand but never got the momentum.
Towards the end, both Sundar and Morris departed in quick succession to add misery to RCB's woes.
In sum, RCB were done in by some incisive bowling from the SunRisers bowlers upfront, resulting in lack of partnerships, something vital for any team to post a decent total.
Their struggle with the bat can be gauged from the fact that RCB batsmen hit only nine boundaries and a six in their entire innings.
SRH read the conditions perfectly, chose to field, and executed their plans with slower deliveries.
Sandeep Sharma, Thangasuru Natarajan, Jason Holder and the spinners bowled exceptionally well to choke the batting-heavy Royal Challengers and set up a comfortable victory.
