SRH beat RCB by 6 wickets to seal berth in Qualifier 2

Holder first led SRH's brilliant bowling effort with figures of 3 for 25 to restrict batting-heavy RCB to a modest 131 for seven before he and Williamson steered SRH past the target with two balls to spare

Abu Dhabi: Jason Holder’s all-round show and Kane Williamson’s solid unbeaten fifty helped Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in the IPL Eliminator here on Friday.

Holder first led SRH’s brilliant bowling effort with figures of 3 for 25 to restrict batting-heavy RCB to a modest 131 for seven before he and Williamson steered SRH past the target with two balls to spare.

Williamson (50 not out off 44) played a composed knock and together with Holder (24 nout off 20) shared 65 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket to take SRH home after early hiccups. SRH play Delhi Capitals in the Qualifier 2 on Sunday for a place in the final while the RCB were knocked out of the tournament.

SRH didn’t have the best of starts losing Sreevats Goswami early. Skipper David Warner (17) didn’t last long, edging one to AB de Villiers behind the stumps off Mohammed Siraj.
Manish Pandey (24) and Priyam Garg (7) too failed to rise to the occasion as they departed in quick succession.

But then, Williamson and Holder joined hands and played sensibly. They initially kept SRH in the hunt before accelerating towards the end to take their side home. Needing nine runs off the last over off Navdeep Saini, Holder struck two boundaries to seal the win.

Earlier, Holder led SRH’s bowling attack with impressive figures of three for 25 and was ably supported by T Natarajan (2/33) as RCB found the going difficult from the beginning. AB de Villiers’ (56 off 43) scored a timely half-century to somewhat rescue RCB from a horrible start and take the team past the 120-run mark.

RCB witnessed a horrendous start to their innings as they lost two wickets for 15 runs inside four overs after being sent into bat.

Skipper Virat Kohli (6) , who opened the innings along side Devdutt Padikkal (1), was the first to depart, nicking one on the leg side to injured Wriddhiman Saha’s replacement Sreevats Goswami off Holder.

An over later, Holder picked up his second victim when Padikkal pulled one to Priyam Garg inside the circle as RCB slumped to 15 for two. Aaron Finch (32 off 30), who replaced Josh Philippe, and de Villiers then tried to stabilise the innings with a 41-run third wicket stand.
But twin blows in the 11th over put paid to RCB’s effort.

First, Finch departed, caught by Abdul Samad off Shahbaz Nadeem (1/30) and then a ball later, Moeen Ali was caught short off the crease by a direct hit from Rashid Khan. Shivam Dube (8) didn’t help his side’a cause, so was Washington Sundar (5).

In between, De Villiers brought up his 50 off 39 balls with a boundary off Holder, but he was soon sent packing by a gem of an yorker from Natarajan as RCB lost their last hope.