Sharjah, Oct 31 (IANS) Jason Holder pulled a stumbling SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) over the line against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Saturday in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and help them inch closer to qualification for the playoffs, thanks to their positive net run rate.
With this win, SRH jumped from seventh place to fourth on the points table. Now, as many as four teams — SRH (net run rate +0.555), Kings XI Punjab (-0.133), Rajasthan Royals (-0.377), and Kolkata Knight Riders (-0.467) — are locked at 12 points. They all have one match left to play, and their final positions coould be detremined by the net run rate.
Mumbai Indians are at the top of the table with 18 points while RCB and Delhi Capitals are placed second and third with 14 points each. The top four teams qualify for the playoffs.
Chasing RCB’s 120 for seven wickets in 20 overs, Holder smashed 26 off 10 balls to take his team to a five-wicket win with just under six overs to spare at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. SRH finished at 121 for five wickets in14.1 overs.
SRH lost captain David Warner in the second over but Manish Pandey and Wriddhiman Saha put up 50 for the second wicket. Just as it looked like the pair are taking their team to an easy win, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal brought RCB back into the game with the wickets of Pandey and Saha.
Kane Williamson then fell to pacer Isuru Udana while Abhishek Sharma fell to speedster Navdeep Saini. Holder then wrestled back control and led SRH to victory.
Earlier, pacer Sandeep Sharma and Holder took two wickets each to help SRH restrict RCB to 120/7 wickets in 20 overs.
Apart from good bowling by Sharma and Holder, spinners Thangarasu Natarajan and Rashid Khan starved the RCB batsmen for runs. In the four overs each that the pair bowled, Natarajan registered figures of 1/11 while Rashid returned 1/24.
Brief scores: RCB 120/7 wkts in 20 overs (Josh Philippe 32, AB de Villiers 24; Sandeep Sharma 2/20) lost to SRH 121/5 in 14.1 overs (Wriddhiman Saha 39, Jason Holder 26; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/19) by five wickets
–IANS
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