The trend of batting second after winning the toss and winning it continues in IPL 2020 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in Sharjah on Saturday to keep their play-off hopes alive.
SRH win did favours to many teams as three play-off places are still up for grabs with six teams still vying for a spot.SRH and RCB are now locked on 14 points, along with Delhi Capitals, with a match each to play.
Speaking after the loss, losing captain Virat Kohli expressed his surprise at the way wicket has been behaving while it has been difficult to judge if dew will play a role.
“It was never enough. We thought 140 might be a good total to get into the game, but things changed drastically, which we didn't predict. It is strange. We thought the weather became pleasant, and there won't be much dew,” Kohli said.
The victory for SRH was down to some clinical bowling spells from Sandeep Sharma and Jason Holder, with other SRH bowlers chipping in as well, to restrict a star-studded RCB batting line-up at 120/7. The short target did huge favour to SRH batsmen, who chased off the run-a-ball target despite losing wickets at regular intervals.
I thought we were not brave enough with the bat throughout the innings. To be fair to them, they bowled in the right areas and used the pitch. The situation is straightforward: win the last game and finish in the top two. It is going to be a cracker of a game with two teams locked at 14. I have always been a Bangalore boy when it comes to the IPL, and never drifted towards Delhi."
