Rajat Patidar achieved 50 runs in 20 balls, helping Royal Challengers Bengaluru overcome a recent slump to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 35 runs in the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
Patidar hit five sixes in his second consecutive half-century, while Virat Kohli scored 51 off 43 balls, contributing to Bengaluru reaching 206-7 in 20 overs.
The strong batting lineup from Hyderabad was unable to make an impact, scoring 171-8 (20 overs) against one of the weakest bowling attacks in the tournament.
Bengaluru made a strong start to the innings, with Kohli and Faf du Plessis (25) putting on 48 runs in 23 balls.
Kohli continued his strong performance as this season’s leading scorer, amassing 32 runs off 18 balls during the power play. He then slowed down, scoring only 18 runs off the next 19 deliveries.
Patidar made up for lost time as he hit Hyderabad bowling to all parts of the ground. He hit spinner Mayank Markande for four sixes in an over before being caught in the deep off Jaydev Unadkat.
Unadkat also removed Kohli before he could make a significant contribution. Green then enabled Bengaluru to recover from 140-4, scoring 37 not out off 20 balls, and pushing the score past 200.
The Sunrisers’ openers have demonstrated their ability to score heavily in the power-play overs, but they failed to make an impact on the day.
Australian Travis Head was dismissed for just one run, caught off Will Jacks. His partner Abhishek Sharma did make a start, scoring 31 off 13 balls, but he was caught behind in the fourth over.
Hyderabad’s top order then faltered against Bengaluru’s spinners. Aiden Markram was out for seven, while Heinrich Klaasen also fell for the same total. Both were out to part-time left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, who finished with 2-40 in three overs.
In between, Karn Sharma bowled Nitish Reddy for 13, and then dismissed Abdul Samad too, as the host team was down to 89-6 in 9.1 overs.
Shahbaz Ahmed hung in there for 40 not out off 37 balls, while captain Pat Cummins also scored 31 off 15 balls. However, this was not enough to recover from the team's initial collapse.
Hyderabad thus retained its third-place position, with 10 points, equal to that of Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow Super Giants. It was sandwiched between the two on net run-rate.
Bengaluru’s second win in nine games saw it remain in 10th place in the points table.