IPL has new champion: Sunrisers hyderabad

Sports Correspondent: In the end even a Chris Gayle blitzkrieg and another Virat Kohli fifty were not enough for the Royal Challengers Bangalore as the Sunrisers Hyderabad , with some power stroke-making blasted his way to a 38-ball-69 and an unheralded Ben Cutting`s incredible hitting won the Hyderabad side their first title. Bating, first Hyderabad made 208 for seven, which was the highest ever score by a team batting first in an IPL final.

Bangalore could manage 200 which meant they had lost by eight runs. Hosts Bangalore started aggressively and looked as if they would finish the game early, as Gayle was going great guns. He hit 76 from 38 balls with the help of eight sixes and four fours. His partner Kohli just added to his haul o runs with a well compiled 54 from 35 balls. They shared a 114 run-partnership in just 66 balls and it seemed that the game was over by then.

But Gayle`s wicket lead to Kohli`s which led to AB de Villiers for just 5 and so from there on it was going to be challenge for RCB, who were playing their thirs final - after 2009 and 2011. Kohli, therefore, came close but fell short of 1,000 runs by 27.

Earlier, it was little-known Cutting who smashed 39 off 15 balls with three boundaries and four sixes to take the Sunrisers past 200-run mark. The last three overs produced 52 runs while Shane Watson (0/61 in 4 overs) went for 24 in his final over out of which Cutting scored 23.

Warner once again led from the front with another sizzling knock but the likes of Yuvraj Singh (38, 23 balls), Shikhar Dhawan (28, 25 balls) frittered away promising starts before Ben provided the `Cutting Edge` with some lusty late hitting For RCB, Sreenath Aravind (2/30 in 4 overs), Chris Jordan (3/45 in 4 overs) were the main wicket-takers.

risingbd/Dhaka/May 30, 2016/A K Azad