W, W, 0, 1, 0, W: How Shahbaz Ahmeds 17th over set up the game for RCB

The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), at 115 for 2 in 16 overs, were comfortably on their way to 150 runs and a win on Wednesday. But Shahbaz Ahmed had other plans.

With SRH’s Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey at the crease, the Royal Challengers Bangalore left-arm spinner bowled the 17th over like this:

Ball 16.1: Jonny Bairstow c AB de Villiers b Shahbaz Ahmed. Jonny Bairstow saw the ball tossed up and heaved over the mid-wicket region with a slog-sweep, but ended up top-edging it high into the sky. AB de Villiers called for the catch as soon as the ball went up and took it.

Ball 16.2: Manish Pandey c Harshal Patel b Shahbaz Ahmed. Pandey also went for the slog as he saw a flighted ball, slicing it in trying to score a boundary. The ball went up and into the hands of Harshal Patel at short third-man.

Ball 16.3: Vijay Shankar walked in to face the hat-trick ball, but defended his wicket for a dot.

Also read: Streak banned for corruption, gave ‘inside’ info to suspected bookie during IPL coaching stint

Ball 16.4: Shankar flicked it into the leg-side for a single.

Ball 16.5: Abdul Samad faced Ahmed, who sent down the fifth floated delivery in a row. Samad saw it out for no run. 

Ball 16.6: Abdul Samad c&b Shahbaz Ahmed. Similar to Bairstow, Samad top-edged the ball. Ahmed kept his eyes on the ball and grabbed it comfortably. 

The 17th a three-wicket over, yielding just two runs, put SRH on the backfoot. They never got the momentum back, with RCB seizing the opportunity and keeping the pressure till the end. The SRH went from 115 for 2 to 142 for 9 in just 17 balls.

It was for the second day in a row that a team collapsed in the death overs after dominating for most of the match. Yesterday, Mumbai Indians defended a modest total of 152 against Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai. Kolkata seemed to be cruising at 122-3 in the 15th over but Nitish Rana’s departure after his 47-ball 57 triggered a Mumbai fightback.

Today’s was RCB’s second victory in two matches, both won narrowly. In the opening tie match of IPL 2021 last week, they beat reigning champions Mumbai Indians by 2 wickets.

The SRH have now lost two matches; they were beaten by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 11 by 10 runs. They next play Mumbai Indians on April 17.

RCB will play KKR on April 18.