Abu Dhabi, Oct 6: Royal Challengers Bangalore made a mess of their run chase as bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad dented their hopes of a top-two finish with a narrow four-run win in a last-over IPL thriller, here on Wednesday.
After putting on board a modest 141 for 7, SRH returned to limit RCB to 137 for six for only their third win in the league. Chasing the total, Devdutt Padikkal and Glenn Maxwell scored bulk of the runs but RCB kept losing wickets and faltered in the end.
Defending 18 off the last two overs, Jason Holder bowled a superb over, giving away just five runs for one wicket.
AB de Villiers smashed a six in the fourth ball of the final over bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar but couldn’t take the team home as the South African could not pull off a six the team needed in the last ball.
Earlier, opener Jason Roy shared a 58-ball 70 run stand with skipper Kane Williamson to set the platform but SRH lost three quick wickets for two runs in seven balls to eventually end up with a below-par total.
RCB were dealt an early blow in their chase when Bhuvneshwar trapped Virat Kohli in the first over. The decision to promote Daniel Christian at number 3 also didn’t work as he was deceived by a slower delivery by Siddarth Kaul.
At 18 for 2, Srikar Bharat joined hands with Devdutt Padikkal and produced two handsome shots for a six and a four to take RCB to 37 for 2 in six overs.
New pace sensation Umran Malik then struck in his fifth delivery, removing Bharat as RCB slipped to 38 for 2.
New-man in Maxwell made his intent clear, clobbering Rashid Khan for a maximum. He repeated the treatment again, sending the Afghan spinner over long-on and then sweeping him for another four.
But with Malik clocking 150km plus consistently, RCB decided to target the other bowlers. However, a poor call by Padikkal ended with Maxwell being runout, while the former too was caught at the boundary line as RCB further slumped to 109 for 4 in 16.5 overs.
Needing 29 off 18 balls, Shahbaz Ahmed smashed two fours to bring the equation down before being dismissed by Holder in the 19th over.
For RCB, Harshal Patel (3/33) and Daniel Christian (2/14) did the maximum demage after skipper Virat Kohli opted to bowl. (PTI)
