#Bangalore : IPL 2016 After huge success and intense seven-week competition, the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) drew to a close with an epic finish doing justice to it. A chase of 209 runs went down to the wire but Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) kept their nerves to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 8 runs to lift their maiden IPL title on Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.Once the duo went back to the pavilion, the RCB batting fell like a pack of cards and in the end could only manage to score 200 for 7 in their 20 overs in reply to Hyderabad’s 208 for 7.
Gayle and Virat Kohli took RCB off to a flyer and it looked that they will take RCB to win with few overs to spar, but once both openers were dismissed, RCB ran out of steam and choked under pressure. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mustafizur Rahman, Barinder Sran, Ben Cutting and Bipul Sharma put in a great bowling effort to take SRH over the line.
Chasing 209 runs to win, Gayle made batting look ridiculously easy as he smashed bowlers all over the park. Kohli started his innings cautiously but soon opened his arms as well. The big Jamaican smashed four fours and eight sixes in his knock of 76 but was outdone by a slower ball from Cutting that was well caught by Bipul at the third man.
As soon as Gayle went back to the pavilion, Kohli took charge of Bangalore innings. Kohli brought up his seventh half-century of the tournament with a six but unfortunately for RCB, Kohli missed out on reaching the 1,000-run mark when he was clean bowled by Sran.
Kohli’s dismissal was the turning point of the match as after him RCB’s batting was in a disarray. AB de Villiers was unable to click and mistimed a shot and fell to Bipul for 5. KL Rahul played a nothing shot at a crucuial juncture of the match and was bowled by Cutting for 11. Allrounder Shane Watson (11) also fell cheaply off Mustafizur. From 114 for 0 RCB was pulled back 164 for 5.
Stuart Binny got off the mark with a straight six six but ended up getting run in the penultimate over. RCB needed 18 off the final over but Bhuvneshwar kept his nerves and gave just 10 off the last over. Cutting was pick of the bowlers with 2 for 35 while Sran, Rahman and Bipul picked up one wicket each.
Earlier, after winning the toss and batting first on a track that promised to be a belter, Hyderabad opener and captain David Warner took matters in his own hands from the word go and smashed the Bangalore bowlers all over the park.
Warner was given decent company by Shikhar Dhawan and the left-handed opening duo managed to put 59 runs by the end of the Powerplay. Warner and Dhawan shared 63 runs for the opening stand in only 6.4 overs before the latter top-edged an attempted sweep off Yuzvendra Chahal to Chris Jordan. Dhawan made 28 off 25 deliveries with the help of three boundaries and a six.
But there was no stopping Warner as he brought up his fifty off just 24 deliveries. He shared a 34-run stand for the second wicket with Moises Henriques who could make only four and was dismissed by Jordan. Yuvraj Singh walked in at No. 4 and the dashing left-hander looked in the mood from the word go.
Yuvraj played some gorgeous knocks in his entertaining knock. He and Warner added 28 runs for the fourth wicket before the Hyderabad skipper was dismissed against the run of play. Warner went for a cut shot off Sreenath Aravind but only managed to find Iqbal Abdullah at short third man. Warner scored 69 off just 38 balls that included eight boundaries and three sixes.
Yuvraj continued playing some expansive shots but on the other end Deepak Hooda (3) was caught by Kohli off Aravind. RCB then came back in the match with Yuvraj’s wicket. Looking set for a big one, the left-hander was caught by Shane Watson off Jordan. He made a brilliant 38 off 23 balls with four fours and two sixes.
RCB then picked up a couple of quick wickets with Naman Ojha getting run out for 7 and Bipul Sharma falling to Jordan. At 174 for 7 after 18 overs, it looked Bangalore would restrict Hyderabad to under 200 but Ben Cutting had some other ideas.
The strongly-built Aussie finished with a flourish, scoring 39 runs off just 18 balls. He smashed Watson for a six and a four in the 18th over but went completely berserk in the final over, where he thumped Watson for a four and three sixes to power Sunrisers Hyderabad to 208 for 7.
For RCB, Jordan (3 for 45) was the pick of the bowler along with Sreenath Aravind (2 for 30), while Watson was the most expensive with figures of 0 for 61 in 4 overs.
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