This time too, captain Virat Kohli did not touch the IPL title. His team Royal Challengers Bangalore ended their mission this year by losing the eliminator match.
David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad secured the second qualifier by defeating Kohli by 8 wickets in the eliminator on Friday. Hyderabad will face Delhi Capitals in the second qualifier on Sunday to reach the final.
Earlier, Bangalore lost the toss and elected to bat at the Abu Dhabi Stadium. Hyderabad bowler Jason Holder returned two openers Kohli and Padikkel to the dressing room in 15 runs.
The Caribbean fast bowler dismissed Kohli for 6 and Padikkel for just 1.
Aaron Finch and veteran AB de Villiers lead the team. Finch stopped the fight with Shahbaz Nadeem’s 32 off 30 balls. Villiers continued to fight for one edge. He just sees the batsmen coming and going from the other side.
Villiers did not get a chance to tie the knot with Moin Ali. After getting down on the wicket, he was run out for zero and returned to the dressing room.
Out of all the other batsmen in the Hyderabad bowlers’ cannon, only Mohammad Siraj has reached the double-digit mark. Only 10 runs. The other two batsmen were Shivam Dubey (7) and Washington Sundar (5).
In the 16th over, de Villiers was bowled by Natraj. When Villiers returned with 58 off 43 balls with five boundaries, Bangalore’s hopes were almost extinguished. If tail-end’s Siraj is unbeaten on 9 and Navadwip Saini is unbeaten on 9, RCB can score only 131 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
Jason Holder was the most successful of the Hyderabad bowlers. He took 3 wickets for 25 runs in 4 overs. Natraj took 2 wickets for 33 runs.
In response, Hyderabad got off to a good start with an easy target of 132 runs. Mohammad Siraj returned Srivastava Goswami with zero runs. Siraj also did not allow hard hitter Hyderabad captain David Warner to survive for long. Siraj also returned him for 18 runs.
Then Manish Pandey and Ken Williamson put up a strong resistance. Manish was bowled out for 24 off 21 balls by Adam Zampa. Williamson held the helm at the other end.
In the meantime, Priyam Garg (7) was gone to pavilion but the Williamson-Holder pair left the field with a victory. Williamson remained unbeaten on 50 off 44 balls. At the other end, Holder remained unbeaten on 24 off 20 balls.
Four-time champions Mumbai Indians have already reached the final after losing to Delhi in the first qualifier.
