Kane Williamson batted like a monk and Jason Holder proved his worth as an all-rounder as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets in the IPL 2020 Eliminator on Friday.
So Virat Kohli’s RCB remain trophy-less for yet another year, while Sunrisers will now play Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 for a place in the final.
The target — 132 — was not steep, but that didn’t make the chase any easier for Sunrisers. Williamson’s 50 not out off 44 balls held the Sunrisers innings together. Holder, after figures of 3/25 with the ball, complemented Williamson to perfection making 24 not out off 20 balls. The win came with two balls remaining.
Sunrisers lost Sreevats Goswami, who came into the side in place of the injured Wriddhiman Saha, in the very first over, caught behind flashing his bat at a wide delivery. Captain David Warner and Manish Pandey steadied the ship somewhat before the former was dismissed in controversial fashion. The third umpire felt the ball had touched Warner’s gloves on the way to ’keeper AB de Villiers, but the Australian would feel that he could have got the benefit of doubt as it was too close to call.
Manish Pandey (24) and Priyam Garg (7) did not last long either. But Williamson and Holder then joined hands to take care of the chase.
Earlier, Sunrisers bowlers made the most of Warner’s decision to bowl first, troubling the RCB batsmen all through the innings. Kohli’s move to open was nipped in the bud by Holder, who also got the other opener, Devdutt Padikkal.
Finch (32) and De Villiers (56) did the repair work for some time, but it was not enough. RCB’s lower middle-order had a miserable outing. But for De Villiers, who was uprooted by a brilliant yorker from T. Natarajan in the 18th over, RCB’s innings would have been even poorer.
A desperate Kohli affected as many as four changes in the team, bringing in Finch, Moeen Ali, Zampa and Navdeep Saini. But they need to do more than that to win an IPL trophy and it’s time for the RCB management to think about it.
