Royal Challengers Bangalore faced a four-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2021 Indian Premier League game on Wednesday. In a low-scoring thriller, SRH successfully defended the 142-run target as seasoned campaigner Bhuvneshwar Kumar defended 13 runs in the final over.
RCB were in a strong position in the chase during Glenn Maxwell's time at the crease, but the side couldn't recover after his dismissal. The Australian scored 40 off 25 deliveries and was run-out.
"I think so (Maxwell's run-out being the turning point). The fact that Glenn Maxwell was scoring more than 10 runs per over, he was perhaps the only batter to have fluency on this surface and he was set. He was the man we wanted at the crease, look it probably was the turning point. It probably did turn the game and we left a little too much for us to do in the end," RCB coach Mike Hesson said.
Devdutt Padikkal played an uncharacteristically slow innings during the game against SRH. After RCB lost two early wickets of Virat Kohli (5) and Dan Christian (1), Padikkal adopted a defensive approach. With Maxwell taking on the hitting duties, the Indian youngster played the anchor role but couldn't rotate the strike fluently. He scored 41 off 52 deliveries.
Hesson said that the team management had told Padikkal to up the ante during the second time out.
"It was in the first time out. It was a matter of the fact that Maxwell was going on, so Padikkal was playing the second-fiddle and he was rotating the strike. He played that role very nicely. But as we saw, it got harder to score and time. There were a few dot balls built up and in the second time-out, around the 15th over, we told Devdutt to take the initiative and take the pressure off the other new batters," said Hesson.
With 16 points, RCB are currently third in the IPL standings. The SRH, which are already knocked out of the race for the playoffs, registered their third win of the season.
