Hyderabad beat Bangalore, set up qualifier clash with Delhi

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Jason Holder put up an excellent all-round performance as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets in the eliminator of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in Abu Dhabi on Friday.

After restricting Bangalore to a paltry 131/7, Hyderabad knocked down the winning run with two balls to spare.

Defending, Bangalore did try to make some inroads through their bowlers to give Hyderabad a scare before Kane Williamson (50) and Holder (20) combined to take their team over the line.

Mohammad Siraj got rid of Shreevats Goswami in the first over to give Bangalore some hope. But David Warner and Manish Pandey put on 41runs for the second wicket to take the score to 43.

Siraj had Warner caught by AB de Villiers behind the stumps before Zampa sent back Pandey make it 55/3. Hyderabad lost the wicket of Priyam Garg in quick succession and were reduced to 67/4 as Bangalore started fancying their chances of a come-from-behind win.

But Williamson and Holder shared an unbroken stand of 65 runs to see Hyderabad through. Hyderabad will face Delhi Capitals in the second qualifier for a berth in the finals. Despite losing the first qualifier, Delhi still have a chance to make it to the final. The winner of the second qualifier will meet Mumbai Indians in the final.

Earlier, Bangalore got off to a nightmarish start as they lost the wicket of Virat Kohli with just seven runs on the board.

West Indian all-rounder Jason Holder triggered the slide to give Hyderabad a dream start by getting rid of Kohli. He was caught by Goswami behind the wickets.

In the next over, Holder inflicted more misery on Bangalore as he dismissed in-form Devdutt Padikkal to push Bangalore on the backfoot.

Bangalore were reeling at 15/2 and needed someone to play a sheet-anchor’s role. After the departure of Padikkal and Kohli, the onus of taking the score to a fighting total fell on Australian captain Aaron Finch and AB de Villiers.

Finch, who was included in the fold after being dropped in the last game, along with de Villiers knuckled down to repair the damage.

Both the batsmen played diligently and shared a 41-run partnership for the third wicket and took the score to 56/2 in 10 overs.

After getting off to a stuttering start, Bangalore could never recover and kept on losing the wickets on regular intervals. Whenever they tried to break free, they were pegged down by a wicket or two.

As soon as Finch tried to flex his muscles with some big hittings to spur the run rate, Mohammad Nadeem struck to give Hyderabad their third breakthrough.

Finch tried to slog Nadeem over the cover but he could not come into the line of the ball and played away from the body.

The ball got the elevation but failed to cover the distance as Samad took a sitter to break the dangerous-looking partnership.

Two balls later, England’s all-rounder Moeen Ali was found short of his ground while trying to steal a cheeky single that never existed.

He was run out off a free-hit delivery as Bangalore were reduced to 62-4 from 56-2. Shivam Dube and de Villiers put on 37 runs to rekindle the hopes before Holder sent back the former to derail the innings again.

After the dismissal of Dube, de Villiers did not find any support from other batsmen as Bangalore lost wickets in quick succession.

De Villiers was standing tall on one end like a wall. He kept the scoreboard ticking with singles, doubles and occasional boundaries. He brought up his fifth fifty of the season with a boundary off Holder in the 16th over. When he tried to cut loose, Natrajan rattled his stumps to peg Bangalore back once again.

After that they failed to get the partnership going and could manage to muster only 137/7 in their allotted 20 overs.