Hyderabad heroes

sunrisers see off bangalore to claim first ipl title

Skipper David Warner’s sparkling half century helped Sunrisers Hyderabad survive a punishing blitz by Chris Gayle to edge out Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight runs in the Indian Premier League final last Sunday (29).

Defending 208 to claim their maiden IPL title, Hyderabad restricted Virat Kohli’s Bangalore to

200-7 at the M Chinnaswamy stadium with Gayle’s38-ball

76 in vain.

With 18 runs required off the final over, pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar – the leading wicket taker of the season with 23 scalps – gave away just nine as the Hyderabad players cele- brated amid fireworks.

Electing to bat first, Hyderabad rode on enter- taining knocks from Australia’s Cutting to post a mammoth 208 “Fantastic team achievement side and the support from pulling my weight with the runs, hard journey. It’s a team effort,” Warner said after the triumph.

If Warner laid a solid ninth fifty of this IPL season, it off with an unbeaten 39 Left-handed Warner (69), who runs in 17 matches, gave the with opener Shikhar Dhawan Warner smashed the ball to ground and took a special liking Watson, whose opening over fifth of the innings, cost 18 runs Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Cha hal, who remained the team’s top wicket taker of the season with 21, got the first break- through when Dhawan mis- timed a slog sweep to deep square leg.

Warner, whose 38-ball knock was laced with eight fours and three sixes, kept up the run rate, forcing Kohli juggle with his bowling options England

medium-pacer Jordan(3-45)

replaced left- spinner Iqbal Abdullah in the over to send Australia’s Moises riques trudging back to the dug Aravind got the prized Warner, who threw away his while trying to slash at a widish ery and got caught at short third Veteran India batsman Singh took over from where off, smacking 38 runs from 23 balls to keep the momentum going.

The Bangalore bowlers kept coming back to get wickets in between but could never arrest the flow of runs. The last five overs saw the back of four Hyderabad batsmen, but Cutting’s late blitz allowed the side to bag 68 runs from the final 30 deliveries.

“To win in Bangalore, we were underdogs. But, we batted well, bowled well and fielded well,” said Warner.

Chasing a record total in the final, Gayle struck from the start, raining sixes with medium-pacers Barinder Sran and Cutting taking a severe beating.

The burly Jamaican stole the spotlight away from fellow opener and sea- son’s top run getter Kohli to notch up his second fifty of this edition in just 25 balls.

The duo, who stitched a 114-run partnership, took 21 runs from a Henriques’ over as Bangalore brought up their hun- dred in just nine overs to enthral the crowd. Cutting gave Hyderabad their first break- through to send back the dangerous Gayle, who smoked four fours and eight sixes during his 38-ball stay at the crease.

Kohli (54), who registered 973 runs this sea- son including four centuries and seven fifties, was the next to go, hitting five fours and two sixes in his 35-ball knock.

Star batsman AB de Villiers soon followed Kohli into the dug-out, giving the Hyderabad bowlers a chance to get back into the game Cutting (2-35) seized the moment to clean up Lokesh Rahul for 11, and with Shane Watson gone for the same score off Mustafi- zur Rahman, RCB started to lose their way into the chase.

In the end Sachin Baby tried his best to match the ever-increasing asking rate with his 10-ball 18 not out, but RCB had to stay content with their third runners-up finish.

“We are proud of the way we played as a team. This was for the people of Bangalore. Even when we had the worst seasons, they were there for us,” said Kohli..