IPL 2022, RCB vs SRH, Top Performances: Jansen, Natarajan 3-fers diminish RCB to 68; SRH at number 2

IPL 2022, RCB vs SRH, Top Performances: Marco Jansen's 3-25, T Natarajan 3-10 and Abhishek Sharma's 47 are top three performances. SRH beat RCB and move to 2nd place in points table.

Virat Kohli gets a golden duck against SRH, RCB all out to 68 (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Brief Scores: SRH 72-1 (Abhishek 47, Harshal 1-18) beat RCB 68 (Prabhudessai 15, Natarajan 3-10, Jansen 3-25) by 9 wickets

Player of the Match, RCB vs SRH: Marco Jansen (3-25 in four overs)

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), after their four back-to-back victories, clashed heads with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) who were placed third in the points table, at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday evening.

Prior to this game, Hyderabad have had an upper hand over Bangalore with an 11-8 winning margin; even though since 2018, the contest has been almost evenly poised at 5-4 to SRH.

SRH captain Kane Williamson, on winning his seventh consecutive toss, opted to field first. Both the sides went in with an unchanged XI.

Sunrisers Hyderabad seized fifth victory; move to second place

SRH bowlers provided their leader all the joy to be happy with his decision to bowl first. Marco Jansen, in his very first over, grasped three wickets including key scalps of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli.

RCB never got off from there as they kept on losing wickets. Dinesh Karthik too failed in the evening with a three-ball duck. Thangarasu Natarajan, after dismissing Glen Maxwell, came back to erase the tail as SRH were blown away for just 68.

It was also a day when RCB registered the lowest score of IPL, 49, five years ago against Kolkata Knight Riders. This is the eighth time RCB have been packed under 100 in IPL. This is the fourth time RCB have been bowled out under 70 or below.

Hyderabad chased down the modest total based on the opening partnership of 64 between Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson, in the space of just 7.2 overs. Abhishek Sharma scored the bulk of runs for SRH with 47 in just 28 balls. SRH went on to win by nine wickets with 72 balls to spare. This was the fourth-best in the list of victories having most balls in hand, for all teams in IPL.

SRH, thanks to a heavy win, powered up to the second spot.

Let’s brief out the top performances from the game between RCB and SRH.

Marco Jansen gets player of the match for his 3-25 against RCB (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Marco Jansen stunned Bangalore with three wickets in one over

The Royal Challengers Bangalore had been blown away in the space of just six balls in the very second over of the game as South Africa left-arm pacer Marco Jansen, with crucial wickets provided them nightmares.

With his second ball of the innings, Jansen sent back his compatriot Faf du Plessis with a peach of a delivery that held its line to disturb the stumps. SRH drew first blood very early with just five on the board.

Off the very next delivery, Virat Kohli got dismissed for back-to-back golden duck as he edged Jansen to the slips. Before the game, Kohli had 569 runs against SRH in just 18 innings. During 2015 to 2021, Kohli had just two ducks in 100 innings while in 2022, he now has two zeroes in just eight innings.

To finish his first over of the game, Jansen got Anuj Rawat caught in the slips for a two-ball duck. The batter went for a drive and an edge off his bat got straight into the hands of Aiden Markram stationed at slips. Rawat now with just 129 runs in seven innings at an average of 16.1 and strike rate of 109.3, will be under tremendous pressure going forward in the tournament.

Even though Jansen didn’t pick more wickets but his three strikes in the first over broke the back of RCB, as he finished with figures of 3-25 from his four overs.

Read More: IPL 2022, LSG vs RCB, Top Performances: Faf's 96, Hazlewood 4-25 take RCB past RR to second place

T Natarajan takes 3-10 and helps RCB bowl out to 68 (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Natarajan kept the pressure on Bangalore with 3-10

Natarajan carried the pressure that Jansen put on RCB early in the innings with a three-wicket over. When the left-arm India pacer was brought in the attack, RCB were already limping at 20-3 after four overs.

Natarajan rubbed salt to RCB’s wounds as he got rid of Maxwell with his very second ball, thanks to an excellent grab from captain Kane Williamson.

After that, RCB lost one of their most crucial wickets as Dinesh Karthik got out by edging to Jagadeesha Suchith in trying to sweep the ball as RCB went down further finding themselves at 55/7 after 12 overs.

Natarajan was called back immediately to erase the tail and he did it brightly. On his first ball after return, the left-armer knocked down the stumps of Harshal Patel for a personal score of 4; it was also the first ball Harshal faced against Natarajan in IPL.

Later, the Tamil Nadu seamer disturbed the stumps of Wanindu Hasaranga on 8 as Bangalore lost their ninth wicket and got bundled out six balls later on 68, with still 23 balls left in the innings. Natarajan ended up with 3-10 from his three overs.

Read More: IPL 2022, SRH vs PBKS, Top Performances: Bhuvi (3-22), Umran (4-28) dismantle PBKS; SRH in top 4

Abhishek Sharma's quick-fire 47 helps SRH chase 69-run target (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Abhishek Sharma’s free-flowing batting fires Hyderabad to an enormous victory

The result was almost known after the dismal batting performance from Bangalore. Chasing 68, the opening partnership of 64 in just 7.2 overs kicked RCB out of the game.

The main weapon for SRH’s chase was the free-flowing batting of young Abhishek Sharma who hasn’t got a great record against the Red Army apart from his 19-ball 46 in 2018.

After spending few minutes to settle down, he began the kill with boundaries and sixes all over the park. He wasn’t afraid of whacking the ball in the air as runs had started to pour down heavily. SRH raced away to 56 in the powerplay, thanks to 46 in just 25 balls from Abhishek Sharma, whom Hyderabad bagged for INR 6.50 crores.

By the time Sharma was dismissed on 47, he had done his job as SRH snatched a convincing victory by nine wickets with 12 overs to spare and catapulted to the second position in the points table.

Read More: IPL 2022, SRH vs KKR, Top Performances: Tripathi 71, Markram 68* help SRH to third win

TATA IPL 2022 Points Table

TATA IPL 2022 Points Table: SRH move to 2nd place

What’s to come

The 37th game of IPL 2022 will see the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), fifth in the points table, locking horns with Mumbai Indians (MI), who even after seven games are still looking for their first win of the season, at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 24.

Top twitter reactions from RCB vs SRH game and Virat Kohli's golden duck against SRH:

Read More: IPL 2022, DC vs RCB, Top Performances: Karthik's 66*, Siraj's 2 crucial blows take RCB to 3rd place