Kane Williamson smashed his 14th IPL half-century while Jason Holder played a cautious knock as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) kept their finals hope alive after defeating RCB by six-wicket in the Eliminator
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
RCB slumped to their fourth defeat on the trot after losing to Delhi Capitals by six wickets on Monday but still made the cut, courtesy their net run rate
Team India coach Ravi Shastri took to twitter to laud the cricketer after his 43-ball unbeaten 79-run knock in the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore that saw his side record a five-wicket victory.
After bowlers pulled things back by restricting RCB to 164/6 despite a good start, Suryakumar Yadav, who was ignored for the Australian Tour, scored an unbeaten 79 from 43 balls to steer his team home.
Hyderabad pace bowler Mohammed Siraj produced a magical performance picking up three wickets for eight runs in his four-over spell in RCB’s eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.
Chasing 85, RCB openers Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch provided a solid start to the side as they put on 46 runs for the first wicket. KKR finally got the breakthrough in the seventh over as Lockie Ferguson dismissed Finch (16).
“AB de Villiers is someone who had hit 73 from 33 balls in the previous game at this same ground. If you had given him more balls, there are chances he might have scored more runs."
Speaking after the victory, leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin, who picked up two wickets for 23 runs in his four overs, said they were delighted to win a game finally.
After struggling to get going initially on a slow Sharjah track, AB de Villiers took the opposition by storm smashing an unbeaten 73 from just 33 balls to power RCB to 194/2.
Chasing a moderate target of 170, CSK openers failed to provide a solid start as they went back to the pavilion early. Washington Sundar scalped both Faf du Plessis (8) and Shane Watson (14) in fourth and sixth over respectively.
