Harry Brook struck the first century of the IPL 2023 as the 2016 champions held their nerves to ward off a spirited challenge from Kolkata Knight Riders.
Harry Brook, the 24-year-old Englishman, who has taken the cricket world by storm thanks to his consistency since his debut last year, stayed unbeaten on 100 off 55 balls. His innings was laced with 12 boundaries and three sixes.
A good sign for RCB is the way their batting mainstay Virat Kohli is batting in IPL. Kohli's batting with positive intent this season is a big plus for the franchise. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes it will boost RCB's chances of finishing in the top four in IPL 2023.
Chasing 229 for victory, KKR didn't have a dream start to the massive challenge as they lost the Afghani wicket-keeping batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a duck 0(3)
For SRH, Brook slammed the first century of IPL 2023 and Markram scored 50 off 26 while youngster Abhishek Sharma played a quickfire knock of 32 in 17 deliveries.
In the chase of 204 runs, Sunrisers was off to a disastrous start as pacer Trent Boult dismissed Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi for ducks in the first over itself, reducing SRH to 0/2 in 0.5 overs.
SRH skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar said at the toss, "We will bowl first, looks like a good batting wicket. Will take advantage with the chase. I'll try and do best for the team. Farooqi, Harry Brook, Adil Rashid, Glenn Phillips are our four foreigners," said Bhuvneshwar at the toss.
Harry Brook, the rising English star, has beaten stiff competition from India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and West Indies spinner Gudakesh Motie to emerge as the winner for the award. Brook took his budding Test career to greater heights in February, scoring two fifties and a hundred.
Ravindra Jadeja is on the shortlist for the first time after inspiring a dominant start to the series for India in their World Test Championship battle against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series.