The 27th match of IPL 9 began with Royal Challengers Bangalore winning the toss and electing to bowl for a change, as compared to either electing to bat first or having forced to do so. The match kicked off nearly an hour late due to the onset of rain. But when it did, it was running between the wickets for the Sunrisers Hyderabad openers.

Warner and Dhawan were taking it easy, up until Richardson tricked Dhawan into giving him a dolly. That’s when Warner changed gears and attempted to make a move by the 5th over, where he scored 14 runs off 2 fours and a six. However he didn’t pick up on the momentum past the over. Many attempts were made to have him taken out, but he wasn’t going out without a fight. Warner used his force, timing and gigantic bat to pick boundaries regularly. He found an able partner in Williamson, who scored 50 off 38 and shared a second-wicket stand of 124 runs in 12.1 overs that charged Sunrisers to 194 for 5. By the 14th over, Warner went nuclear and hit a six-four-six consecutively, crossing Virat’s high score and earning the orange cap. But alas as he attempted to create history of going for a century in the short format, he handed de Villiers a sweet catch and ended his innings at 92 runs off 50 balls. After Warner’s disappointing dismissal, Williamson rose up and attempted to take the lead but was dismissed by a slow bouncer that took the soft edge and landed to the Keeper. Naman Ojha came and went back in a blur. Henriques played a fine unbeaten cameo of 31, which came in 14 balls, hitting three sixes and a lone boundary, towards the end to take his team to a respectable total of 195.

The Challengers skipper and opener Kohli, played it safe from the get go. This is probably what led him to falter as he attempted a boundary and handing Reddy an easy catch. He complimented Rahul who along with him gave RCB a good start as they raced to 42 after five overs. De Villiers was the lucky man for RCB, having being dropped twice by Nehra and Hooda. He established two stable partnerships of 41(28) with Rahul and 39(20) with Sachin Baby. He was the man that would have led RCB to a victory had he not been caught out by Williamson in an attempt to make his 50. Jadhav made a commendable effort to push RCB forward but failed to do so. The game ended with Rasool getting caught by Henriques off the last ball and the Sunrisers Hyderabad winning the match by 15 runs courtesy warner’s dominating 92 run contribution.