All -rounder Ben Cutting powered Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden IPL title as they edged host Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday night.
CHAMPIONS #IPLfinal
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 29, 2016
All -rounder Ben Cutting powered Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden IPL title as they edged host Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday night.
Related Articles
Cutting smashed 39 off just 15 balls to complement skipper David Warner's quickfire 69 and helped Sunrisers post a massive 208 batting first. He then halted a dangerous-looking Chris Gayle, who belted out eight sixes in his 38-ball 76, just when the West Indian threatened to take the match away.
The Cutting edge: 39 runs in 15 balls, plus the big wicket of Gayle
Although RCB stalwarts Virat Kohli (54, 35b) and Gayle (76, 38b) came out all guns blazing, the Sunrisers bowling attack - unarguably the most effective of the season - rose to the occasion and held them back to 200 for seven in 20 overs.
The death bowling made all the difference. While, Sunrisers blasted 52 from their last three overs (thanks to Cutting going berserk and taking 24 off Shane Watson's last over of the innings) RCB struggled to string together some 21 from their last three.
Virat Kohli was gutted he couldn't kick on after 54
Chasing in front a vociferous home crowd , Bangalore were cruising at 140 for one in the 13th over when Hyderabad struck. Cutting had accounted for a rampaging Gayle, and Kohli was done for when he over-ambitously made room to cut Barinder Sran, and played on.
Captain David Warner made a rollicking 69
Although the prodigious Bangladeshi quick Mustafizur Rahman was taken apart by Kohli, his senior partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a brilliant final, with accurate yorkers giving him figures of 4-0-25-0. AB de Villiers was required to play a guiding hand similar to the one he had in the Qualifier 1, against Gujarat Lions. But he conceded his scalp to Biplab Sharma. And when Cutting returned to dismiss the in-form KL Rahul, Bangalore were left with only their untested lower order to match the steep asking rate.
Yuvraj Singh pitched in with a neat cameo
Earlier, Warner elected to bat on a flat and even track. Both Dhawan (28) and Yuvraj Singh (38) chipped in with useful runs, but it was captain Warner again who did most of the scoring. Wickets fell left right and centre as Deepak Hooda (3), Moises Henriques (4) and Naman Ojha failed, but Cutting ransacked Watson for 24 runs in the last over of the innings to exacerbate the home team's agony.
CHAMPIONS! #IPLfinal
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 29, 2016
RCB captain Kohli had a brilliant campaign and just fell short of 1,000 runs for the season. Just like Bangalore's campaign revolved around their skipper, Hyderabad too were over-reliant on Warner. The Sunrisers captain made 848 runs from 17 matches with nine half-centuries this season.
