SRH Vs RCB: Shahbaz Ahmed and Maxwell steer RCB to a surprise win

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore was everything but the expected. Sunrisers were unable to chase a low run target of 150 runs set by Bangalore, who with a gallant bowling performance of Shahbaz Ahmed snatched away the win from Sunrisers by a margin of 6 runs.

The match almost felt like a re-run of the previous night’s match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, wherein the team in a clearly good position to take the game home was surprisingly outplayed by the other team.

David Warner came to the pitch in all his glory, he composed himself after a hesitant start only to find the gaps in the field and hammering the ball persistently. Warner’s bout ended with an impressive 54 off 37 balls, but the chase slipped away from Hyderabad’s control after his wicket.

Shahbaz Ahmed’s performance was fierce enough to deter batting stalwarts Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey, he eventually took them out along with the wicket of Abdul Samad all in the 17th over of the game. He single-handedly steered the fate of the game.

Ahmed’s over was so powerful that the game after the over went to Hyderabad’s winning probability of 37.49 from the massive 80.83 at the beginning of the over.

Rashid Khan, the Afghan prodigy was a tall task that Bangalore was unable to overcome, he almost single-handedly secured the mid overs for his team, ousting the mighty AB de Villiers and Washington Sundar. His economy rate of 4.50 was more than enough to stunt the run rate of RCB.

The best part about RCB’s first innings was Glenn Maxwell finally ending his dry spell of a fifty and hitting a much-deserved half-century, the first one after 2016. It was a slow start for Maxwell but he eventually gained ground, hitting the ball out of the park for 3 huge sixes, smashing the ball away to the fence displaying sheer batting prowess we know Maxwell is capable of.

Maxwell collected the Player of the Match award for himself and said, “It's a very nice start, new franchise for me and they have given me a specific role. To start like this is really nice. It's nice to have batters behind you, you have freedom with AB to come and it's a very similar role I have in the Australian cricket team. The support staff have been backing me as well. It's just about using the experience. Get myself in and then go for the runs. Probably having those guys behind me is a luxury at RCB.”