10.00 pm It’s 10 pm… do you know where your children are? I’m having flashbacks to “The X-Files” credits segueing to the 10 o’clock news! Instead, it’s an IPL match that has ended 90 minutes early. A nine-wicket mauling by Sunrisers, icing the match with 72 balls to spare after rolling over RCB for 68.

Narayanan: “RCB must learn from Namibia Women who defended same total today “. Indeed, a wild Women’s T20I in Windhoek as the hosts won by 28 runs in the end despite Uganda Women’s bowler Phiona Kulume’s 6 for 11! Sune Wittmann responded with 5 for 10 in the win for Namibia.

A glum looking RCB captain Far Du Plessis: [Asked what went wrong] Those first four overs…. It’s probably not losing four or five wickets up front. It was a little spicy in that first few overs, the balls swung a little bit, but you still have to find a way to get a good foundation, even if it means you just absorb it a little longer and sacrifice a few runs just to get through that seaming and swinging ball. Then once you’re through it, it would get easier. Looking at other matches in other games, it looked like this wicket looked probably the best out of every one so far. Our expectation was this would be a very good wicket, but in all good wickets, you still have to assess in those first two overs. There’s no excuses. You still need to find a way. Marco Jansen the way he bowled in that first over was very good, swinging the ball both ways and obviously getting some big wickets. A day like today is not great, so you want to make sure you don’t get all emotional about a day like today. It’s a bad day at the office, you keep your chin up, it’s a long tournament, and in a day or two when we look at this game, we make sure we get the learning from it so when we play these guys again or come back to this ground, there is a bit of learning that has happened for us as a team going forward.”

SRH opener Abhishek Sharma: “I’m feeling really good for contributing for my team and I was enjoying my shots. I think I always wanted to play at this position for any of my teams and I was just waiting for my opportunity. When they decided to give me opening for SRH, I was really excited. Obviously we have a great support staff with us so I just keep heeding their help all the time and that’s what’s helping me. [Batting with Kane Williamson] It’s working really well for us because we’ve been talking almost on every ball in between the wickets, talking about the game, how it’s coming, how the next ball we might play. So that’s helping. [On working with Brian Lara] 100%, I’ve been learning my best from him because we all know what he did for the country and for cricket. So I’ve been trying my best for him.”

SRH captain Kane Williamson: “It was one of those days really. There was a little bit in the air and the guys bowled beautifully and we caught well. For things to unfold like that, you need a bit to go your way and we got that. Obviously we got that. It was an outstanding performance but a lot went our way. So for us it’s about going back to our plans and looking at the next challenge. There’s a lot of strike power there and the balls are swinging this season a lot more than other seasons so we’re trying to make use of that as a side. I think we’ve seen a lot of wickets in the Powerplay, and for us to take those wickets in the Powerplay was a great start to the match. [On Marco Jansen] Off the field, he’s always up for a laugh. He’s always very focused and very clear on what he wants to do. He clearly had an outstanding match today and he’s got the skills to do that. When the ball is swinging a little bit, and a little bit of grass on the surface, he’s a real threat for us. So it was great that he was able to get the rewards today. [On boosting net run rate] Obviously you want to win every game and that’s the first goal, and then you want to try to do it as well as you can and it was great we were able to do that today. [On Abhishek Sharma] There wasn’t a lot of chat. He knew the drill. He’s timing the ball beautifully and he’s played a number of amazing match-winning knocks for us. There were a lot of contributions today and throughout the first half of the season so far but we know we have a lot of challenges coming up.”

Player of the Match is Marco Jansen: “I just try to keep it as simple as possible, have a nice clear game plan. Sometimes it goes and flies good out of the hand. [On his three wickets in an over] After the first ball, I thought the ball is gonna swing nicely. Then the next ball didn’t swing as much and it went on with the angle. For me personally, I enjoyed my third wicket, the left-hander. Definitely the best white-ball over I’ve bowled so far.”

So that’s it for our coverage today. Come back tomorrow for more IPL action. On behalf of my commentary partner Shashank Kishore and the scoring team, I’m Peter Della Penna. Take care!