IPL 2019: Match 54, RCB vs SRH - Who Said What

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the match 54 of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) now have to just win their last league game and not worry about the net run-rate to qualify for the playoffs. The fourth playoff spot is still open going into the final day of the league stage and SRH will have its eyes on the last game now.

But they themselves are to be blamed for this situation having dropped Shimron Hetmyer at a crucial stage of the match. They also misfielded quite a few times and that cost them the game eventually. Chasing a total of 176 runs, RCB were struggling miserably at 20/3 at one stage. With the likes of Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli back in the hut, many felt that they go down without a fight in the last game as well.

But Shimron Hetmyer and Gurkeerat Singh Mann had other ideas. The duo added 144 runs for the fourth wicket and that turned out to be a match-winning one in the end. Though they lost wickets in clusters, they were only a couple of fours away from a victory and Umesh Yadav did it easily in the last over.

Williamson propels SRH

Earlier, it was Kane Williamson who did the trick for SRH. He played a blinder of a knock to come back into the groove for his team and remained unbeaten on 70 off just 43 balls which propelled his team to a decent total of 175 runs after 20 overs. Vijay Shankar and Martin Guptill played well but a bit more contribution from others would’ve taken the team’s score closer to 200.

However, the score didn’t prove to be enough and the Orange Army will have to pray that the Mumbai Indians (MI) win their last league game now and qualify with 12 points.

Man of the Match, Shimron Hetmyer said:

Getting used to the environment was tough for me. I just tried to clear my mind and wanted to execute my plans. The experience of IPL has been fantastic. I have learned a lot from Virat and ABD. RCB are a top-side.

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper, Virat Kohli said:

If we focus on the second half, it is exactly what we wanted in the first half. After losing your first six matches, it is very difficult to comeback in a tournament like IPL. We have a lot to learn from this season. The first couple of things matters a lot in setting the intensity.

We are happy with the way guys have turned things around and the kind of cricket that we have played in the second half. A lot of credit goes to the team management for getting us back in the right frame of mind. We haven’t finished in the position that we wanted to. But because the second half has been so good it doesn’t feel like a bad season.

We won last 6 off our 7 matches and it is something that we can be proud of. It is such a short format that often 5 or 7 minutes decide the outcome. We can be proud of the boys played in the final few matches.

When me and ABD got out, I think the opposition took it lightly. We spoke upstairs, “game on”. Hetty, we know he can play like that, and hope to see him play more like that next year. Both Hetmyer and Gurkeerat played really well. And Gurkeerat played a really mature innings. Hats-off to this crowd. They are the best fans in the IPL.

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper, Kane Williamson said:

Every time you turn up you like an element of control. At the halfway stage it felt like we set a competitive total. Credit to Bangalore for the way they stuck out and kept coming hard at us. Naturally when you take your opportunities it does help.

But that is a game of cricket. It would’ve been nice to get 10-15 runs in the first innings, but credit to Bangalore for keeping up the pressure. I suppose there are a number of fine lines, our last two matches could’ve gone either way but we ended up on the wrong side.

But that’s T20 cricket for you. It is one of those things now, we have to sit and wait, things are not in control which is a shame. Fingers crossed, lets see how it goes tomorrow.

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