Royal Challengers registered a six wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL

May 16, 2015 11:13
Royal Challengers registered a six wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL

Rain, which should have cooled down temperatures, set pulses racing in the IPL table on Friday.

With the teams bunched tightly in the middle going into the last two days of the league fixtures, a lot was riding on the match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore in their penultimate match.

It was reduced to 11-overs-a-side after 160 minutes of play was lost to rain and when it resumed thanks to the tireless efforts of curator YL Chandrashekar and his team, David Warner and Moises Henriques, such an impact player for Sunrisers, rained sixers on the hapless RCB attack.

They made light of Shikhar Dhawan's early dismissal to add 103 runs for the second wicket, 'switching' gears after three overs to pile on 135 for three. Warner (52 not out, 32b, 5x4, 6x1) and Henriques (57; 22b, 5x4, 6x4), including 21 in Harshal Patel's second over, ran RCB ragged, making the most of two dropped catches and a run-out missed.

Skipper Virat Kohli, who fiercely remonstrated with umpire Anil Kumar Chaudhary after play continued despite a drizzle with three deliveries left in Mitchell Starc's final over, has reason to feel shortchanged as rain piled on more agony for RCB and their target was revised to 81 from six overs.

Kohli (44 not out; 19b, 4x3, 6x3) held his nerve, though, to fashion a six-wicket victory and two points for his team. The first two overs bowled by Dale Steyn and Bhuvneshwar Kumar yielded RCB 41 runs with the former conceding 17 and the latter 24 as Chris Gayle helped himself to 35 (10b, 4x4, 6x3).

Henriques' twin strikes off successive deliveries to get rid of Gayle and AB de Villiers failed to halt RCB, needing 13 from the last over, as they finished at 83 for four and took their tally to 15 points.

RCB have been rain-hit on four occasions this season. They had piled up 200 for seven against Rajasthan Royals at home but the match was abandoned as it started raining heavily after their innings.

A heavy downpour in Bangalore before their match against Kolkata Knight Riders meant it became a lottery over 10 overs, which the hosts won and if following the 22-run defeat to Kings XI Punjab, again a 10-overs-per-side encounter on Wednesday. On Friday though, the gods were with them.

- Manohar

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