Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad spiced up the race for the Indian Premier League (IPL) play-offs with a thrilling seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, at Uppal, Hyderabad on Tuesday.
The Sunrisers’ win has opened up an interesting race for the fourth place in the play-offs and also assured Chennai Super Kings their place in the last four.
Electing to bat first, Royal Challengers scored 160 for six in 20 overs thanks largely to skipper Virat Kohli’s 67 off 41 balls. In reply, a 100-run opening stand between Shikhar Dhawan (50) and David Warner (59) helped Sunrisers stroll to 161 for four with two balls to spare.
Dhawan, who was removed from the captaincy of the Sunrisers on Sunday, rediscovered his form with a quickfire 39-ball knock studded with seven fours and a six. Dhawan found an able ally in Warner, who smashed three fours and four sixes in his 46-ball knock.
The duo took Sunrisers to the threshold of a win with their 100-run stand and it was then left to Naman Ojha (24), Aaron Finch (11 not out) and skipper Darren Sammy (10 not out) to take the team home safely.
Earlier, Chris Gayle (14) once again failed for the Royal Challengers and Parthiv Patel (4) fell early too. Captain Virat Kohli took it upon himself and, along with India teammate Yuvraj Singh (21), strung together a 57-run stand for the third wicket.
Kohli and AB de Villiers (29) gave the innings the much needed impetus and, at 141 for three in the 17th over, it seemed Bangalore were on their way to an imposing total. But both Kohli and De Villiers fell in the space of four balls and the Bangalore innings lost all momentum.
Sachin Rana (12 not out) struck a couple of boundaries to take Bangalore to a fighting total.
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