Manoj Tiwary praises the Sunrisers at the expense of RCB's bowling

The first match in Sunday’s double-header saw the Sunrisers Hyderabad host the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. What promised to be a lip-smacking encounter, though, turned out to be a huge mismatch as the Sunrisers decimated RCB en route to a 118-run victory, riding on twin centuries by openers Jonny Bairstow and David Warner, who became the fourth pair in T20 history to score centuries in the same innings.

RCB, meanwhile, lived up to their ignominy in the IPL, and are rock bottom of the table having lost all three of their encounters. Though they would feel hard done by the controversial and narrow defeat against the Mumbai Indians, the way they were destroyed by CSK in their initial match and the Sunrisers today would not be encouraging to Virat Kohli and co. Kohli would be left to rue the day right from the toss after he sent in SRH stand-in skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar to bat.

What followed was the Bairstow & Warner show. The pair tore into the RCB bowling right from the get-go, smacking boundaries with ease all over the park. Both batsmen brought up their centuries with Bairstow scoring 114 off 56 balls and Warner an unbeaten 55-ball-100, to take the Sunrisers to a mammoth 231/2 in their 20 overs. The duo put on a partnership of 185 runs, the highest for any opening pair in IPL history.

RCB’s bowling was not at all impressive, says Manoj Tiwary

The knock took Warner to the top of the Orange Cap list, with 254 runs in 3 innings. The RCB bowlers took a bludgeoning, especially 16-year-old debutant Prayas Ray Barman, who had a baptism by fire getting hit for 56 in his four overs. In response, RCB merely rolled over without putting up a fight, getting bowled out for a meek 113 in 19.5 overs. It promised to be worse if not for a late 35-run knock by Colin de Grandhomme, after a dismal top-order collapse.

Bangalore, who have never won an IPL, need to go back to the drawing board after their third consecutive defeat. The mismatch of the game was addressed in a tweet by former India player and Bengal captain, Manoj Tiwary. Tiwary was not picked by any team in the IPL 2019 auctions but is keenly following the tournament. In his tweet, he called the SRH openers’ knock to be “complete entertainment”, but expressed dismay at the RCB bowling, who he said, were “not at all impressive”.

Here’s the tweet

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