MS Dhoni gave Royal Challengers Bangalore a massive scare before the home team edged Chennai Super Kings out by one run in the Indian Premier League on Sunday night.
Dhoni smashed seven sixes and five fours to score 84 from just 48 balls before Bangalore held on for dear life in the last over. It was a rare win, their third to be precise, for basement side Bangalore. Victory will be even sweeter given it came against the table toppers and defending champions.
Bangalore's wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel received the Man of the Match award for a half-century, but victory was as much down to a brilliant bowling spell by teammate Dale Steyn.
The veteran South African fast bowler took the wickets of Shane Watson (5) and Suresh Raina (0) to finish with figures of 2-29. Pace caused more problems for Chennai with Umesh Yadav taking 2-47. However, even as Umesh took the wickets of Faf du Plessis (5) and Kedar Jadhav (9), he will be mindful of the fact he bowled a poor last over to Dhoni.
"We did really well to restrict RCB below par," the Chennai captain said. "It was more of a calculation mistake that we lost wickets early on."
Big win for Hyderabad
Kane Williamson has conceded Sunrisers Hyderabad will miss David Warner and Jonny Bairstow when the opening duo leave the Indian Premier League to join their national teams ahead of next month’s Cricket World Cup.
Australia’s Warner and Englishman Bairstow put on a 131-run partnership yesterday – their fourth 100-run stand in IPL 2019 – to power Hyderabad to a nine-wicket win at home to Kolkata Knight Riders. They are also two of the competition’s top run-scorers this season with aggregates of 517 and 445 runs, respectively.
More importantly, Hyderabad moved to fourth in the table, and captain Williamson paid tribute to the pair while being mindful of the fact neither player will be available for the entire duration of the league.
Great win @SunRisers. Love you daddy @davidwarner31. #ipl #OrangeArmy pic.twitter.com/z07fXEMZT6
— Candice Warner (@CandiceWarner31) April 21, 2019
Bairstow will depart on Wednesday, which means he will almost certainly play in tomorrow’s away game against Chennai Super Kings. Warner will leave at the end of the month to join Australia’s training camp in Brisbane on May 2, ruling him out of participation in the play-offs should they qualify for the next stage.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to watch the two at the top hit the ball like that,” Williamson said. “Without a doubt, Warner and Bairstow will be big losses. They are world-class players.
“We knew at the start of the tournament that we will lose them at the backend of the tournament and new guys will come in then.”
Hyderabad will have fewer headaches in their bowling department seeing as the Indians in the attack did the heavy lifting against Kolkata.
Left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed, who missed the World Cup cut, was named Man of the Match for taking the wickets of Chris Lynn (51), Sunil Narine (25) and Shubman Gill (3) at the top of the order, to finish with figures of 3-33.
Fellow Indian seamers Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (2-35) and Sandeep Sharma (1-37) were also among the wickets, as was Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan (1-23).
Kolkata ended up posting 159-8 in their 20 overs after being sent in to bat by Williamson. It was not enough to challenge the Hyderabad batsmen as their top-order completed the job in just 15 overs.
Kolkata, sixth in the table, will host Rajasthan Royals on Thursday.
