David Warner smashed 92 as the Sunrisers Hyderabad successfully defended the 195 they set the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Deccan on Saturday evening.
Warner now has the most runs (386), the most fifties (5), the most sixes (17) and the most fours (38) in this season’s IPL, as he guided his side to a fourth victory of the campaign.
AB de Villiers threatened to play a leading role in chasing down the target, but his wicket fell at a crucial stage, which all but ended RCB’s challenge, leaving them with just two wins from their six matches.
The reverse fixture earlier in the season saw RCB defend a massive 227, but the roles were reversed this time, as Sunrisers lost the toss, but still amassed 196, thanks to Warner’s 92 – which was amongst a 126-run partnership with Kane Williamson (50) – and Moises Henriques’ late blitz, which saw him score 31 off 14 balls.
Warner now has 24 IPL fifties to his name, second to Gautam Gambhir’s 27, and that was his fourth century partnership of the season – three with Shikhar Dhawan, one with Williamson.
RCB, chasing for the first time this campaign, got off to an encouraging start, but Virat Kohli, fresh off a maiden T20 ton, fell for 14 off 17 balls. Lokesh Rahul pushed on with De Villiers, and Rahul fired his way to a 28-ball 51 before Henriques found the breakthrough.
With the required run rate escalating to close to 13 an over, De Villiers teed off with back-to-back sixes off Henriques, but his innings would come to an end at the worst possible time for his side, as he was caught on the boundary for a 32-ball 47.
That left too much work to do for Sachin Baby and Kedar Jadhav, who fell 16 runs short of the mark.
In the day’s earlier match, the Delhi Daredevils beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs in Delhi to go second in the standings.
The Daredevils were rocked by early wickets, but a 105-run stand between Karun Nair (68) and Englishman Sam Billings (54) changed all that, before a 14-ball 31 blitz from Carlos Brathwaite saw them post 186-6.
Robin Uthappa was left to do the chase all on his own, seeing seven wickets fall around him as the required run rate became all too much. He scored 72, with the next-best score being 21, as they lost their second consecutive match.
Picture: BCCI
