IANS/Hyderabad


Captain Virat Kohli (pictured) hit a 19-ball 44 to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore to a much-needed four-wicket victory in their Indian Premier League match against Sunrisers Hyderabad yesterday.
Rain forced the first innings to be curtailed to 11 overs, in which the home team Sunrisers posted an enviable 135 for 3.
With rain curtailing the chase to an six-over 81-run target, Chris Gayle got going right from the word go.
He milked 11 runs from the first over of their innings and 24 from the second before falling in the third over to Moises Henriques.
AB de Villiers was sent back on a golden duck by Henriques while Mandeep Singh and Dinesh Karthik were sent back cheaply. With 12 runs required off the last four balls, Kohli hit two fours and a six to earn valuable points for his team.
Earlier, a blistering 57 of 22 balls from Henriques and a brilliant 52 from 32 deliveries from Sunrisers skipper David Warner helped his side put up an enviable 135 for 3 in 11 overs.
David Wiese was the pick of the bowlers for RCB, clinching figures of 2 for 20 from his two overs. The host thus set a daunting asking rate of 12.27 for the Challengers.
Even though the hosts lost swashbuckling opener Shikhar Dhawan (8) early, his opening partner Warner kept on the pressure on the RCB bowlers clubbing them to the ropes frequently.
Henriques and Warner then got stuck on leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal hitting him for 17 in the 5th over and bringing up the team’s 50.
The next over from pacer Ashok Dinda, who was turning up for the first time in the tournament, yielded 18 runs as some wayward bowling helped Henriques put the leather into the stands.
Henriques went berserk against Harshal Patel, after being dropped in the opening delivery of the seventh over. 20 runs came off the over.
SRH reached the triple figure mark with three overs to spare as Warner kept playing second fiddle and giving the strike to his partner at the end who was having a gala time in the middle.
But Henriques soon fell after completing his half-century edging one to the wicket-keeper.
RCB pulled things back in the last few over but by then the damage had been done.