IPL 2024: Kohli, Patidar hit fifties as RCB reach 206/7 despite Unadkat's 3-30 vs SRH

HYDERABAD: Rajat Patidar and Virat Kohli struck half-centuries in contrasting fashion as Royal Challengers Bengaluru posted 206/7 in 20 overs despite a three-fer by Sunrisers Hyderabad's Jaydev Unadkat in his 100th match, in Match 41 of India Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Thursday.

Kohli scored his fifty off 37 balls while Patidar hammered his half-century off just 19 balls as RCB posted another 200-plus score after skipper Faf du Plessis opted to bat first on a dual-paced pitch on which the slower one was quite effective.

Patidar blasted four sixes in an over off Mayank Markande to shore up the RCB scoring rate after Kohli struggled to break free. Unadkat applied the brakes on the free-scoring RCB innings by claiming the key wickets of Patidar, Kohli and Mahipal Lomror for a fine haul of 3-30 off four overs in his 100th outing in IPL.

Cameron Green (37 off 20) and Impact Player Swapnil Singh (12 off 6 balls) unleashed some big shots in the death overs as RCB crossed the 200-run mark again in IPL 2024. Swapnil hammered a four and six off the first two deliveries of the final over as RCB ended on a strong note.

Earlier, Kohli and du Plessis struck a couple of fours each as they raced to 48 in the fourth over before the skipper departed.

Skipper du Plessis struck Bhuvneshwar Kumar for three boundaries in the second over, the pick of them being a four crashed through the covers off a fullish delivery outside the off stump.

In the next over, he welcomed Pat Cummins with a superb six, scooping behind a delivery picked from around off-stump and planting him over the leg-side for the first six of this match. But the introduction of T. Natarajan brought his downfall when he holed out near the deep cover boundary trying to maintain the RCB scoring tempo in Power-play.

Though he was out for 25, RCB raced to 61/1 in Power-play and though Kohli's scoring rate went down, Rajat Patidar made for that with some brilliant strokes. RCB were going strong despite losing Will Jacks cheaply for six after he played over a slower one from spinner Mayank Markande to make it 65/2.

Kohli, who started with a four off Abhishek Sharma's first delivery, struck back-to-back fours off Pat Cummins and struck a four and six off Natarajan in between singles. He went on to complete a slow half-century off 37 deliveries, hitting four boundaries and one six. This was his fourth successive half-century at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium.

Rajat Patidar more than made up for the slow going from Kohli with a blazing half-century off 19 deliveries. The highlight of Patidar's sensational knock was the four sixes he blasted off successive deliveries against Markande, lofting, clobbering and pulling the leg-spinner as the over cost SRH 27 runs.

Kohli and Patidar raised 65 runs for the third wicket partnership with the latter doing the bulk of scoring. The half-century of their partnership came in 23 balls with Patidar scoring 45 off them.

However, SRH pulled things back a bit after Patidar fell by the sword, trying to play another big one but managed to flick the slow full toss from Jaydev Unadkat into the hands of Abdul Samad at deep square leg. Patidar's 20-ball 50 was studded with two boundaries and five maximums.

Kohli completed his half-century off 37 balls, but Unadkat got him in the next over, getting him to hole out to Samad as the former RCB skipper failed to break free from the shackles. Mahipal Lomror was out cheaply but Cameron Green played a fine cameo and with the help of Dinesh Karthik (11 off 6) helped RCB reach a defendable total.

Green struck his Australia skipper Cummins for a couple of fours in the 15th over and repeated the same in the 19th over while Swapnil Singh landed a couple of lusty blows in the final over to prop up RCB.

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 206/7 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 51, Rajat Patidar 50, Cameron Green 37 not out; Jaydev Unadkat 3-30, T.Natarajan 2-39) against Sunrisers Hyderabad.