Sunrisers finishes with a win at home

Sunrisers Hyderabad tipped off Royal Challengers Bangalore in a last over finish to secure two crucial points and keep themselves alive in the hunt for Playoffs. Where RCB went in with the same team, SRH brought in Rassol and Venugopal Rao. Pathiv Patel was sent back by Kumar in the first over itself. Virat and Gayle played carefully and tried to steady off the ship.

When Sammy brought in spin from both ends, things became even more difficult for the RCB. Gayle disappointed once again and went off in the pursuit of taking the charge on Karn Sharma.  Pitch was looking low and slow and runs were hard to come by. After ten overs, RCB managed only 48 runs on the board.

Yuvraj and Virat decided to up the ante targeting the SRH spinners. Virat smashed Karn for 19 runs and just when partnership started to threaten; it was broken by Rasool picking up Yuvraj.  Virat and AB made on move from they’re targeting the gentle pace of Sammy and Irfan Pathan. In 18^th over RCB reached 140 on the board, it was then Virat got out to an ordinary delivery from Pathan after scoring a well-made 67. In the next over AB was cleaned up by Bhubaneswar, the ball keeping a bit low. That was a big moment in the first innings as Virat and AB looked like taking RCB to total in excess 170 but after the dismissal of both the batsmen RCB could manage 160 of 20 overs.

When SRH came into bat, they sprung the surprise by sending in Warner to open with Shikhar. RCB started with Murali but bowled next 3 overs from quickies. SRH batsmen took the advantage and accumulated runs at will. Murali came back into attacked, but he failed to make an impact on the surface which looked slow and low in the first half of play. Virat brought on Chahal but it also had no impact on Shikhar and Warner. After 10 overs SRH had scored 72 without any loss. They went on to complete 100 runs partnership it looked like RCB bowlers had no armory to dismiss them. Finally, Shikhar got run out after scoring a well-made 50.  SRH needed 45 off last 30 balls and Abu Nechim returned for a new spell. Warner hammered him for a six off the first ball clearly showing his intention to the target his over. But the next ball Abu was hit by Warner shot on his hand, which forced Virat to complete the over from Yuvraj.  With 35 needed of last 4 overs Warner hold out an easy catch to Yuvraj of a full toss delivery from Aaron.

With Yuvraj bowling an excellent next over, the equation left for SRH was 20 off last two. Virat threw the ball to Aaron and he conceded 16 off the over. Despite picking up the wicket of Ojha, he was slammed for 2 sixes in the overs. Starc could not do much with just 4 needed of last over and SRH got over the line two balls to spare.

RCB will be disappointed on being not able to win after coming close.  But they could have done things differently. Yuvraj could have been used in the earlier part of the game as pitch looked to be on the slower side which suited Yuvraj style of bowling more than anybody else. Also, with 2 overs to spare Virat must have bowled with Starc in the penultimate over.  A tight over from Starc would have meant more pressure on SRH in the last over with more than 10 runs to get. But nonetheless, a win from SRH not only ensured lifeline for them but keeps everyone interested in Points Table.(Check points table here)