Man-of-the-match Warner’s inspiring included three boundaries and four sixes. PHOTO: BCCI
KARACHI:
Hyderabad recorded a seven-wicket win over Bangalore in their Indian Premier League (IPL) to keep alive their hopes of making it to the play-off round.
Batting first at the Rajiv Gandhi Uppal Stadium in Hyderabad, the Bangalore team amassed 160 runs for the loss of six wickets. Skipper Virat Kohli overcame a string of mediocre performances to score 67 off 41 balls. His innings was studded with four boundaries and four sixes.
AB de Villiers chipped in with a 29-run cameo to up the tempo towards the end of his team’s batting effort. Yuvraj Singh contributed 21 runs while Bhuveneshwar Kumar took two wickets, conceding 27 runs in his four-over spell.
The hosts were in no great danger of losing the plot, following a 100-run opening-wicket stand. David Warner scored a typically aggressive 59 off 46 balls. Shikhar Dhawan helped him lay a platform for the win by contributing 50 runs off 39 balls.
“Batting at the top was different,” said Warner. “I wanted to bat till the end. Credit to the curators, they’ve produced fantastic wickets for us.
“Dhawan did very well. It was nice to see him dig in and get a good total.”
The job of overhauling the target was completed by Aaron Finch (11) and captain Darren Sammy (10) as both remained unbeaten. Varun Aaron was the only successful bowler for the Bangalore team; the right-armer took two wickets and gave away 36 runs in the process.
“We needed a win and it was the last game in front of these fans,” said Sammy. “Those last two overs from Kumar and Dale kept us in the game. We’ll go to Ranchi, try for a clinical performance and hope other results go our way.”
Warner was declared the man-of-the-match for his impressive knock for the winners, who now have 10 points on the IPL table after their latest win. Bangalore have the same points but are higher up the table due to a superior net run-rate.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2014.
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