By K Aditya
Abu Dhabi, Oct 6 (UNI) Harshal Patel continued with exhilarating form in the season as the purple cap holder took three more wickets for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to 141/7 in Match 52 of IPL 2021, here on Wednesday.

Asking SRH to bat first, RCB bowlers failed to content runs in the first 10 overs. However, tight spells from Dan Christian (2/14) and Patel changed the complexion of the game as SRH were 105/2 at one stage.

Opener Jason Roy (44 runs off 38 balls) and captain Kane Williamson (31 off 29) contributed the most in SRH total.
SRH opted for a new opening combination with Abhishek Sharma promoted up the order with Roy.
Sharma (11 off 9) showed explosive intent with a boundary and a six at the beginning of the second over but fell right after to George Garton while attempting a rash shot.
In at no. 3, SRH captain Williamson took the pressure off his team by placing Mohammed Siraj for two consecutive fours in the next over. The conditions seemed batting friendly initially as Roy and Williamson kept the scoreboard ticking with Garton being the victim again. His second over of the night went for as many as 17 runs as the overseas batting pair took SRH past 50 by the end of the powerplay.

The run rate significantly came down with the spinners coming in and the field spread as the SRH pair could only add 31 runs in the next five overs.

The pressure of moving the scoreboard faster soon got Williamson (31 off 29), who was clean bowled by purple cap holder Patel in the 12th over.

Roy (44 off 38) and his new partner Priyam Garg (15 off 11) tried to build on the foundation with a quick 16-ball 21 stand but RCB only came back stronger.

The SRH downfall started with Christian dismissing both the batsmen in the 15th over to expose their middle-order woes.

Leggie Yuzvendra Chahal backed the Australian veteran right after by trapping pinch-hitter Abdul Samad lbw for 1 run; leaving SRH reeling at 107/5.
Wriddhiman Saha (10 off 8) and Jason Holder (16 off 13) managed to give SRH something to defend by taking the score to 141 but not before Patel (3/33) made them his 28th and 29th wicket of the season respectively.

Patel is now three wickets shy of matching the IPL record of most dismissals in a season.
UNI XC GK 2156