Sunrisers Hyderabad's win opens up race for IPL play-off berths

Hyderabad – Sunrisers Hyderabad spiced up the race for the Indian Premier League (IPL) play-offs with a thrilling seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, at Uppal, here Tuesday.

Sunrisers win has opened up an interesting race for the fourth place in the play-offs and also assured Super Kings' place in the last four.

Electing to bat, Royal Challengers scored 160 for six in 20 overs thanks largely to skipper Virat Kohli's 67 off 41 balls.

In reply, a 100-run opening stand between Shikhar Dhawan (50) and David Warner (59) helped Sunrisers stroll to 161 for four with two balls to spare.

Dhawan, who was removed from captaincy Sunday, found back his form hitting a quickfire 39-ball knock that was studded with seven fours and a six. Dhawan found an able ally in Warner, who smashed three fours and four sixes in his 46-ball knock.

The duo took Sunrisers to the threshold of a win with their 100-run stand and it was then left to Naman Ojha (24), Aaron Finch (11 not out) and skipper Darren Sammy (10 not out) to take the team home safely.

Earlier, Chris Gayle (14) once again failed for the Royal Challengers and Parthiv Patel (4) fell early too.

Captain Virat Kohli took it upon himself and along with India partner Yuvraj Singh (21) strung together a 57-run stand for the third wicket.

Kohli and AB de Villiers (29) gave the innings the much needed impetus and at 141 for three in the 17th over, it seemed Bangalore were on their way to an imposing total.

But both Kohli and de Villiers fell in the space of four balls to take the momentum off the Bangalore innings.

Sachin Rana (12 not out) struck a couple of boundaries to take Bangalore to a fighting total.

Brief Scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 160 for six in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 67, AB de Villiers 29; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-27)

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 161 for three in 19.4 overs (David Warner 59, Shikhar Dhawan 50; Varun Aaron 2/36).