By Mohammed Shafeeq, IANS,
Hyderabad: In a superover finish, Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five runs in their Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium Sunday.
Requiring 21 in the superover, RCB could score only 15 runs. Chris Gayle could hit only one six and captain Virat Kohli a boundary in Dale Steyn’s over. The over read 2-1-4-1-6-1.
Cameron White hit two huge sixes off Vinay Kumar to set a target of 21 for RCB. White scored 17 runs and Perera 2. The RCB bowler also bowled a no ball. His over read 2-1-1-6-2-6-2.
Earlier, Vinay Kumar took the game to superover by not allowing Hanuma Vihari and Steyn to score seven of the last over of the inning. Requiring two off the last ball, the batsmen ran for one to tie the score at 130.
Local boy Ashish Reddy and Hanuma Vihari scored 14 off the 18th over of the inning to bring their team close to the target. Ashish hit Vinay Kumar for a six over long-on while Vihari picked him for a boundary.
Vihari, with 44 not out, was the hero for Sunrisers. He also picked up the prized wicket of Gayle.
Moises Henriques gave Sunrisers the first breakthrough on his very first delivery in the second over of the inning with Parthiv Patel (2) edging it the keeper. Henriques struck again in his third over to remove Cameron White to reduce Sunrisers to 2/20.
Akshath Reddy with Hanuma Vihari then tried to steady the inning. They added 28 for the third wicket before Muralitharan struck to clean bowl Akshath Reddy (23 off 21).
Kumar Sangakkara joined Vihari and the duo attempted to keep the scoreboard ticking. For the first time in the IPL, the captain faced his compatriot Muralitharan. He picked up another Sri Lankan teammate Dilshan to pull him over midwicket for a boundary. Ten runs were scored of Dilshan’s over.
Unadkat broke 33-run partnership for the fourth wicket when he had Sangakkara caught behind the wicket. Unadkat struck again in his next over to send Perera (7) back to pavilion.
Earlier, once again bowling with discipline, Sunrisers bowlers restricted the RCB to a modest total of 130 for 8 in 20 overs.
Electing to bat after winning the toss, RCB struggled to reach the score with the failure of top order barring captain Virat Kohli, who was top scorer with 46, which include five hits to the boundaries and one over the fence.
Moises Henriques, who came in place of Dan Christian, played a fine knock of 44 (5×4) to support the skipper and saved the team from a complete disaster.
Barring the two, no other batsman could reach double figures. Ishant Sharma claimed 3 for 27 while Amit Mishra once again impressed with figures of 4-0-15-1. Dale Steyn, Perera, Vihari and Ashish Reddy bagged a wicket each.
Sangakkara’s gamble to introduce Hanuma rpt Hanuma Vihari as the first change paid off with the off-spinner having Gayle (1) caught behind to his first delivery, which was quickish with slight extra bounce.
About 30,000 Sunday crowd, many of whom were expecting some fireworks by Gayle, was clearly disappointed.
Ishant Sharma gave another major breakthrough in his very first over and the fourth of the inning. Dilshan (5) was beaten to an in-swinger, uprooting the stumps. With both openers back into the pavilion at 22, the visitors were struggling.
Kohli then tried to rebuild the inning. Karun Nayar (9) also did not last long as Amit Sharma trapped him leg before to his first ball.
Kohli tried to free the arms in the 13th over by hoisting Ishant Sharma over long-off for the first six of the inning. Ishant conceded 12 runs in that over.
The captain’s fighting knock came to an end in the very next over to a superb return catch by Ashish Reddy in his follow-through. This ended the fourth wicket partnership (43 off 41), the highest of the inning.