Hyderabad: Sunrisers carved out a five wicket win over defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, here on Sunday night. The change of franchisee has proved to be a sunrise for the cricket crazy city of Hyderabad.
In their very first season, the Sunrisers Hyderabad dished out some memorable performances on way to seal a place in the playoffs of the T20 tournament. They won seven out of eight matches at home. It paved the way for their entry into the playoffs. Royal Challengers Bangalore had pulled a stunning win over the super kings in a rain-hit game on Saturday night, the Sunrisers fate was in their own hands.
The Sunrisers took up the challenge of scoring 131, as they were in no mood to mess up with their destiny in front of a packed house of over 31,000 fans but had to survive some anxious moments before pulling off the win. Opener Parthiv Patel struck two successive boundaries in the second over to set the tone for the chase.
The diminutive wicketkeeper-batsman took on the role of the aggressor while Dhawan played the sheetanchor role. Parthiv struck six fours in his 20-ball 31. Thereafter, Dhawan took over and struck some amazing shots . Dhawans 35-ball 42 contained three fours and a six.
Patel (47; 37b, 7×4) was given leg-before to Abdullah in the following over and then Cameroon White (2) was run out to inject some drama. GH Vihari (6) too did not last long and the Knight Riders sniffed a chance. Big hitting Thisara Perera (4) failed to come good too but Darren Sammy (17 n.o., 14b, 2×6) hit Abdullah for two huge sixes to settle the issue.
It might have been a coincidence that the Royal Challengers hopes of entering the play offs were dashed by a team from Hyderabad for the second time in as many years. In 2012, Royal Challengers needed to defeat the now-defunct Deccan Chargers in their last league encounter to enter the play-offs, but they failed to win a closely contested match then.
They became the fourth team to secure a berth in the play offs with the other three being Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals. Hyderabad will now face Royals in the eliminator match to be held in Delhi on Wednesday.
Knockout stage
Qualifier 1 on May 1: Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians (New Delhi)
Eliminator on May 22: Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (New Delhi)
Qualifier 2 on May 24: Loser of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Eliminator (Kolkata)
Final on May 26: Winner of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Qualifier 2 (Kolkata)
