Despite defeating Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 55 runs in Hyderabad on Friday, Sunrisers Hyderabad held the third position in the Indian Premier League standings.
RCB will play Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 at Dharamsala on May 26 after finishing second in the standings.
In a high-scoring match, RCB scored 200/4 in 20 overs after SRH scored 255/4 in the first half. Krunal Pandya scored 41 not out, while captain Rajat Patidar scored 56 from 39 balls. Fine numbers of 4-0-33-2 were returned by Eshan Malinga.
Ishan Kishan (79) led the way earlier as Sunrisers Hyderabad surpassed 250. Heinrich Klaasen (51) and Abhishek Sharma (56) both contributed half-centuries to SRH.
Vice-captain Kishan found the gaps while demonstrating both precision and cheekiness to blast his way to 79 off only 44 balls, while Abhishek (56 off 22 balls) struck another 20-ball half-century and silenced Bhuvneshwar Kumar in his first spell.
As the Orange Army made sure they would surpass 250 runs on a batting featherbed, Klaasen (51 off 24 balls), perhaps the most reliable batter among teams below No. 3, literally toyed with a world-class operator like Josh Hazlewood, taking as many as 27 runs off his third over and the team’s 13th.
When Abhishek skillfully lofted a Bhuvneshwar delivery over wide of long-off to get his maiden six, the chaos began. He flicked him twice, once over square-leg and again over deep mid-wicket off consecutive deliveries, preventing Bhuvneshwar, who had found a second wind in this IPL, from settling down.
The world’s top-ranked T20 batsman was not supposed to be troubled by Romario Shepherd’s amiable, sporadic medium pace, and it didn’t. Suyash Sharma’s delivery was similarly launched into orbit with little footwork, and he was lofted for a few consecutive sixes.
No words of appreciation would be sufficient for Klaasen, who is the most sought-after gun-for-hire in the franchise world and no longer plays international cricket, even if Kishan dropped anchor at one end and is displaying consistency that one expects from a player like him.
In Kishan’s case, the RCB bowlers were guilty of bowling into his pads, which allowed him to free his arms. In contrast, Klaasen was not bothered by either the wide or straight lines that were bowled at him.
Rajat Patidar’s approach was undermined by the way he blasted Hazlewood, and Nitish Reddy added a finishing flourish with a 12-ball 29 not out. SRH batters hit 16 sixes and 20 boundaries overall.
