IPL 2020: Jason gets a hold of Royal Challengers Bangalore

Sunrisers Hyderabad all-rounder Jason Holder broke the back of the Royal Challengers Bangalore to keep them down to a modest total in the IPL Eliminator in Abu Dhabi on Friday night.

The towering West Indian got a hold of the Royal Challengers Bangalore top order to return with three scalps as Virat Kohli’s side finished with 131 for 7 after being put into bat, at the Zayed Cricket Stadium.

Kohli’s tweak to the combination where he promoted himself to open the batting didn’t as Holder polished off both the openers. Kohli edged Holder down the leg side to wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami, who had replaced the injured Wriddhiman Saha.

The young Devdutt Padikkal was gobbled up by Priyam Garg at mid-wicket as he tried to force the pace to make use of the powerplay.

The Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers kept a tight lease which the Royal Challengers Bangalore were unable to get out of. And it all worked like clockwork for their skipper David Warner as he rang in the bowling changes.

Apart from Kohli and Padikkal, Holder accounted for Shivam Dube. Then, T Natarajan, who has been impressive right through the tournament, finished up with two wickets, including the prized scalp of AB de Villiers.

AB stood amongst the ruins, scoring a defiant 56 from 43 deliveries with five boundaries, before, in a rare sight, T Natarajan sent his middle stump cartwheeling with a yorker.

Australian opener Aaron Finch, who came one-down, made a 30-ball 32 that had three boundaries and a six.

Brief scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 131-7 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 56, Aaron Finch 32, Jason Holder 3-25, T Natarajan 2-33) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers (wk), Moeen Ali, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (C), Shreevats Goswami (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan.

james@khaleejtimes.com

• IPL 2024
• Abu Dhabi