IPL 2020: Match 52 – SRH vs RCB – Who Said What

The 52nd match of the Indian Premier League saw action between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Hyderabad. In what was a must-win game for SRH, they showed their class by defeating RCB by five wickets. Batting first, RCB showed a dismal show and ended their innings by putting just 120 on the board. Their usual heroes failed today, and Josh Philippe’s 32 off 31 was the highest individual score from their batting’s unit.

Sandeep Sharma was named as the player of the match for his phenomenal pace attack. AB de Villiers and Washington Sundar added 24 and 21 runs from their end to help the team. The bowling display of SRH was too strong to handle as Sharma, and Jason Holder picked two wickets each. T Natarajan, on the other hand, conceded just 11 runs to name one scalp on his credit.

Chasing the below-average target, small contributions from batsmen were enough to take the team over the line. Wriddhiman Saha added 39 off 32 from his end, and Manish Pandey produced 26 off 19 off his bat. Their end innings got accelerated incredibly as Jason Holder got 26 off 10-balls. Yuzvendra Chahal picked two wickets while maintaining the best economy from RCB’s bowling unit.

Losing skipper, Virat Kohli said

It was never enough. We thought 140 might be a good total to sort of get into the game on that kind of wicket. Things changed drastically in the second innings. There was a lot of dew which we didn’t quite predict, they got it right at the toss eventually. In the end it was very difficult to hold the ball. Strange one. In between we thought the weather has become pleasant and there wasn’t any dew, but last few games in Dubai and here as well there has been dew. The pattern keeps changing but regardless you need to have runs on the board.

We weren’t brave enough with the bat throughout the innings and credit to them – they used the pitch well and the change of pace. It is a competitive tournament and you can’t take any games lightly or any teams for granted, the situation is in front of us – we have to win our last game to hopefully finish in the top two. It also gives teams a chance to make a comeback. Having said that it makes you aware of your downfalls as a team and things that you need to correct going forward. It is going to be a cracker of a game with both teams locked in at 14 points. I have always been a Bangalore boy in the IPL never sort of drifted towards Delhi.

Winning skipper, David Warner said

Losing Vijay is a big miss. For us we have worked out, how to go about at the top of the order. With the bowling, the credit goes to them. The wicket is slowing up a bit, the bowlers got to adapt to it. Tonight the bowlers have executed it well. Dubai has been the same, I think it gets dewy here. It wasn’t a surprise at all. Holder’s a great all-rounder. To bowl a bouncer against someone like him, you have to dig it very short. It’s great to have that consistency. We knew we had to win today, and that’s the case in the next game. In 2016 we had to win three games and we did that.

Player of the match, Sandeep Sharma said

When I started bowling, it was a bit sticky. It’s coming nicely, it’s got cooler here, so it’s helping. I have been bowling the knuckle ball, Jonny (Bairstow) has been helping me. It took around three or four months to get it right. Kohli is one of the greatest batsman, so getting him out is special. Now we are finding the momentum with one game to go. We are excited about that, let’s see what happens.