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Klaasen helps Hyderabad past Bangalore / Photo: © AFP
Klaasen helps Hyderabad past Bangalore
A powerhouse batting display, headlined by three frenetic half-centuries, set up Sunrisers Hyderabad’s comprehensive 55-run victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Friday, though it wasn’t enough to secure them a top-two finish as both teams completed their league engagements on 18 points apiece.
Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen extended their consistent run on a terrific batting surface at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, muscling the home side to 255-4 after Pat Cummins chose to bat.
Defending champions Bengaluru needed to score at least 166 to ensure that they finished ahead of Hyderabad on net run rate even in the event of defeat, and they got the job done with clinical efficiency, finishing on 200-4.
Despite the defeat, Bengaluru (0.783) ended up table-toppers, ahead of Gujarat Titans (0.695), who also amassed 18 points, with Hyderabad occupying the third spot.
Bengaluru seemed determined to have a go at the massive target through their new opening combination of Venkatesh Iyer and Virat Kohli, who added 60 in just 27 deliveries.
After both fell in the space of 14 runs, Devdutt Padikkal kept up the momentum but when the left-hander was caught in the deep off the excellent Eshan Malinga, Bengaluru retrained their focus on achieving their primary objective of 166.
Where Hyderabad’s bowlers used pace off the ball to great effect, Bengaluru had been punished earlier in the evening for being unidimensional, Travis Head and Abhishek setting the tone through their 45-run first-wicket stand.
Hyderabad, the 2016 champions, made sure wickets didn’t fall in clusters, stringing together successive subsequent alliances of 52, a blazing 113 off just 48 balls for the third wicket between Kishan and Klaasen, and 45 respectively to put on an exhibition for their home supporters in the last game of the season at this venue.
Abhishek’s first fifty in six innings was the base from which Kishan and Klaasen cut loose.
Diminutive left-hander Kishan packed quite a punch while Klaasen, who was on five off nine deliveries at one stage, rediscovered his boundary-hitting touch with three sixes and a four off a Josh Hazlewood over that went for 27.
While Kishan brought up his fourth consecutive half-century against Bengaluru before being dismissed off the last ball of the innings, Klaasen’s sixth score of more than 50 took him past the 600-run mark for the season on a run-soaked night of high-class entertainment.
S. Alves--JDB
