Hyderabad, after taking a severe beating in their first game, could have been forgiven for arriving in Bangalore with some trepidation. The Royal Challengers, boasting one of the IPL’s most formidable batting line-ups, had hammered the reigning champions, Kolkata, in their opening fixture, so were strong favourites to make it two from two. Yet, in the event, Bangalore were easily beaten, by eight wickets and with 1.4 overs to spare.
Choosing to leave out Dale Steyn again, Sunrisers won the toss and fielded. Both decisions looked unwise when Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli quickly set about their bowlers. But, with the score on 43 after 5.3 overs, Gayle holed out for 21 and Dinesh Karthik soon followed for nine.
This earned Hyderabad the dubious reward of welcoming AB de Villiers to the middle but Ravi Bopara, the player preferred to Steyn, made light of it, dismissing Virat Kohli and Mandeep Singh in consecutive balls.
Soon afterwards Ashish Reddy removed the dangerous Darren Sammy, leaving De Villiers to secure a decent total. He had a go, making 46 from 28 balls but fell to Trent Boult, with Sean Abbott and Harval Patel following in the same over. Bhuvi Kumar then accounted for Abu Nechim and Varun Aaron, leaving Bangalore all out for 166 in 19.5 overs, their last six wickets going for only 41 runs.
Unsurprisingly Hyderabad came out swinging. Shikhar Dhawan quickly realised David Warner was on song and allowed him as much of the strike as he could. Warner, helped by some miserable bowling, reached 50 from 24 balls in the seventh over.
When he went for 57, his team were so far ahead of the rate that all they needed to do was bat sensibly and Dhawan did precisely that. So, too, did Lokesh Rahul, another supremely talented young Indian, and both were there at the end to celebrate victory.
