IPL 7 SRH vs RCB: Sunrisers Hyderabad get back to winning ways

 

The Oranges squashed the 161-run target with seven wickets and two balls to spare. Openers Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner made it an open and shut case with a 100 run partnership that battered the off colour Reds much to the delight of the 28,000 flag waving fans at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.

 

Dhawan darted back to form with a fine 50 that included seven fours and a six before he was run out. Warner whacked three fours and four sixes in his 46 ball 59 before he left the field with the hosts needing just 34 to win. Aaron Finch, Naman Ojha and Darren Sammy completed the formalities thereafter to help the hosts climb a rung to sixth on the points table.Earlier, the famed Bangalore batting line up could only muster a modest total. Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh and AB de Villiers scored just 64 among them as the visitors stumbled through their innings while captain Virat Kohli played the lone hand with a steady 67 that came off 41 balls, four of which raced to the boundary and an equal number soared over it.

 

RCB began badly, losing Parthiv on the fifth ball, leg before wicket to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Opener Gayle was out of sorts too. He got off to a subdued start as Steyn bowled a probing line to tuck him in his crease. The Jamaican opened up in the third over when he jumped out of the crease to thump Bhuvneshwar Kumar over cover for his first boundary but that was all about the biggie who scraped 14 off 20 balls.

 

After tardy progress  the visitors were 48 for 2 at the half way stage Yuvraj slammed the first six for the visitors in the 11th over sending off-spinner Parvez Rasool over long on. Kohli stepped it up at the other end, carting Karn Sharma for two sixes and a four asRCB took 19 runs off the 12th over. That, along with the one bowled by Darren Sammy later, was the best RCB had. Yuvraj fell soon as he searched for quicker runs, holing out to Steyn off Rasool in the 13th over. Kohli then raised a 61run stand for the fourth wicket with de Villiers before the latter perished trying to up the ante, bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 19th over. No.6 Sachin Rana displayed immense courage with an audacious scoop off spearhead Steyn that earned him a boundary in the last over. After that, RCB were never in the game.

 

Scorecard