Hyderabad: The swinging Sunrisers danced their way to defend yet another low total, tying the Royal Challengers Bangalore in knots to string their fifth straight victory that sent the home crowd into delirium on Monday night.
Brilliant bowling, despite dropped chances, helped the hosts restrict Virat Kohli’s men to 141 for 6 and carve out a five-run win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
Chasing 146, RCB burst off the blocks to rattle 55 for the loss of one wicket in the first six overs. Then the lights turned red. Opener Manan Vohra could not capitalise on a dropped chance on 7 and soon fell to a freak dismissal, playing a Sandeep Sharma delivery on to his stumps via the back of his bat.
SRH captain Kane Williamson let Kohli’s edge off Rashid through his legs at slip when the batsman was on 33 and the side total read 64 for 2 in the ninth over.
However, the RCB and India captain could not capitalise on the chance and departed for 39 courtesy a blinder of a catch by an outstretched Yusuf Pathan at short third man off Shakib.
The other big gun — A B de Villiers — followed, bowled by Rashid Khan as RCB sank to 80 for 4 in the 11th over.
Mandeep Singh (21) and Colin de Grandhomme (33) did their best to pull back things with a 57-run stand for the sixth wicket but it was not enough in the game that went down to the last ball.
Earlier, Williamson cracked 56, his fourth half-century of the season to once again lead the charge and take the Sunrisers to a modest total that was built in stop-start fashion.
His side having lost three early wickets, the Kiwi played sensibly to put up a steady partnership of 64 runs for the fourth wicket with allrounder Shakib Al Hasan to shore up the innings.
