Abu Dhabi, Nov 7 (ANI): SunRisers Hyderabad kept their finals hope alive after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by six-wicket in the Eliminator here at Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.
SRH will now face Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 here on Sunday (November 8). The winner of that match will play the summit clash against Mumbai Indians.
SRH needed 18 runs in the last two overs. Mohammed Siraj just gave nine runs in his penultimate over. Navdeep Saini had nine runs to defend in the last over of the match which he failed to as Hyderabad won the game with two balls to spare.
Chasing a moderate target of 132, SRH had the worst possible start as opener Shreevats Goswami (0) lost his wicket in the first over off Mohammed Siraj.
Manish Pandey joined David Warner in the middle and added 42-run for the second wicket. The latter departed after playing a knock of 17 runs.
Kane Williamson came in to bat at number four. In the ninth over, spinner Adam Zampa bagged Pandey (24) and sent back top-three batsmen of Hyderabad.
Priyam Garg and Williamson then had a brief 12-run stand for the fourth wicket. Garg failed to play a big inning for the side and was dismissed at seven runs by Yuzvendra Chahal.
All-rounder Jason Holder and Williamson then had a solid unbeaten partnership of 65-run to put their side over the line. Meanwhile, Williamson completed his half-century and remained not out on 50 runs.
On the other hand, Holder played a supporting knock of 24* runs off 20 balls.
For RCB, Siraj bagged two wickets while Adam Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal scalped one wicket each.
Earlier, Holder and T Natarajan starred with the ball as Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted RCB to 131/7 in the allotted 20 overs.
Holder picked three while Natarajan scalped two wickets as no batsmen except AB de Villiers got going for RCB.
Put in to bat first, RCB suffered an early jolt as skipper Virat Kohli was dismissed in the very second over by Jason Holder. RCB’s start worsened as Holder dismissed Devdutt Padikkal in the fourth over.
A couple of wickets early in the innings saw Aaron Finch and de Villiers playing a sluggish knock to revamp the game.
The Kohli-led side made just 32 runs in the powerplay as SRH looked in full control. Finch and de Villiers stitched a 41-run stand before Shahbaz Nadeem dismissed the former in the 11th over as RCB got reduced to 56/3.
Moeen Ali, who came in to bat at number five, got run out on the first ball as RCB reeled on 62/4.
De Villiers and Shivam Dube then rebuilt RCB’s innings as the South African cricketer hit timely boundaries without playing risky shots. However, Dube struggled to time the ball and eventually got dismissed by Holder in the 16th over.
Meanwhile, de Villiers continued his fine form and smashed his 38 IPL half-century. However, a perfect yorker from T Natarajan ended de Villiers’ stint at the crease in 18th over.
In the end, RCB were only able to score 131 runs in their allotted 20 overs.
Brief scores: RCB 131/7 (Aaron Finch 32, AB de Villiers 56, Jason Holder 25-3, T Natarajan 33-2) lost to SRH 132/4 (Kane Williamson 50, Jason Holder 24, Mohammed Siraj 2-28) by six wickets.
