Sunrisers clinch maiden IPL title

BENGALURU: Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers put up an incredible performance to ruin Virat Kohli’s fairytale season beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 runs in a high-octane summit clash walking away with their maiden Indian Premier League trophy, here on Sunday. In a battle between IPL’s best batting and bowling line-ups, the Orange Army came up trumps despite initial blitzkrieg from Chris Gayle and Kohli, defending their total of 208 for seven by restricting the home team to 200 for seven. It was David Warner’s batting and astute captaincy complemented by some inspirational death overs bowling by Mustafizur (1/ 37 in 4 overs) and Bhuvneshwar (0/25 in 4 overs) that clinched the issue. Warner, who hit 68, finished second in run-getters’ list with 848 runs. The turning point certainly would be the 24 runs that Ben Cutting (39 no and 2/35) got in the final over off Shane Watson’s bowling during Sunrisers innings and then came back to dismiss a rampaging Gayle. With 18 needed off last over, Bhuvneshwar, who bowled 13 dot balls gave only 9 runs. As the last ball was delivered, skipper Warner’s joy knew no bounds with the entire team and dug-out joining him in wild celebrations. Gayle (76 off 38 balls) and Kohli (54 off 35 balls) had a scintillating opening stand of 114 in 10.3 overs as it looked like a cakewalk for the home team. But in the end, Kohli was the tragic hero once again after the WorldT20 in a tournament that will be remembered for his exploits. He finished the tournament with an astounding 973 runs at an average of 81.08 and and equally impressive strike-rate of 152.03. He hit an unbelievable four hundreds and seven half-centuries, not to forget 83 boundaries and a staggering 38 sixes. Once the duo were back in quick succession, it depended AB de Villiers (5), who had one of his rare failures as Sunrisers came back into the match. KL Rahul was done in by a slow off-cutter from Cutting and Shane Watson found it hard to get the big shots going as Mustafizur accounted for him. Stuart Binny hit Mustafizur down the ground for a six as the equation came down to 37 from 3 overs. But Bhuvneshwar bowled a brilliant 18th over keeping everything in the blockhole as only 7 came off the over. RCB 30 were needed off last two overs as Binny (9) was run-out off the first delivery of the 19th over bowled by Mustafizur. Sachin Baby hit six off the last ball as RCB’s requirement of final over was 18 runs but Bhuvneshwar kept his cool to win the match for Sunrisers. In pursuit of 209, it was Gayle who started the carnage with two sixes and a boundary off the fourth over bowled by leftarm Barinder Sran. In the fifth over of the innings, Gayle hit Cutting for a six and a four off consecutive deliveries to bring up RCB’s 50. Gayle was already in his 40’s when Kohli finally reached double figures as RCB also managed an identical 59 for no loss after Powerplays. Gayle’s 50 came off 25 balls with a six down the ground off Moises Henriques. The likes of Henriques and Cutting were guilty of bowling too many length balls to Gayle, who promptly dispatched them over the ropes. The mayhem continued as the 100 came off 9 overs with Gayle’s contribution being 74 compared to Kohli’s 20. Earlier, skipper David Warner blasted his way to a 38-ball-69 as unheralded Ben Cutting’s incredible hitting enabled Sunrisers Hyderabad get to a competitive 208 for seven against RCB in the final of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, here tonight. This is the highest ever score by a team batting first in an IPL final. It was little-known Cutting who smashed 39 off 15 balls with three boundaries and four sixes to take the Sunrisers past 200-run mark. The last three overs produced 52 runs while Watson (0/61 in 4 overs) went for 24 in his final over out of which Cutting scored 23. (PTI)