A royal innings: Bangalore beat Hyderabad by 4 wickets

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s AB de Villiers scored an impressive 41-ball 89, as his team went on to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets in an Indian Premier League Match at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Bangalore were set a target of 156 by Hyderabad. David Warner scored yet another half-century, en route to his 49-ball 61. Shikhar Dhawan also contributed with his 37 runs but his innings was based on 36 deliveries. Bangalore lost two wickets in the second over of Bhuvneshwar Kumar when he bowled Parthiv Patel on his first delivery and accounted for Virat Kohli on the last bowl of his over. Virat faced five deliveries without scoring any run. With 28 required of the last two overs, AB de Villiers struck bowler Dale Steyn for 24 runs in the 19th over and finished off with a boundary towards cover off Irfan Pathan who was given a hefty task of defending four runs in the last over.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2014.