Warner, Dhawan take Hyderabad to 7-wicket win

HYDERABAD: New opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner put on a century stand to help their side beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets and stay in contention for play-offs.

Shikhar Dhawan was relieved of the captaincy job and that proved an effective move as he along with David Warner gave RCB bowlers hard time in the middle. SRH chase got off to a flying start and after the power play overs they were 51 for no loss.

Dhawan played some exotic shots as Warner at other end kept rotating strike. RCB bowlers looked helpless as Warner too joined in and attacked spinners. Dhawan finally managed to convert a start into a decent innings when he brought up his 17th IPL fifty, his first this season. One ball later after reaching the milestone Dhawan (50) was run-out at the striker’s end but SRH were well ahead with 101-1 after 13 overs.

Warner then continued his good show as he notched his 15th IPL fifty, his fifth this season. His innings of 59 was cut short when he was caught by Yuvraj Singh off Varun Aaron leaving SRH 126-2 in 16.1 overs.

Naman Ojha and Aaron Finch then took SRH close to victory before Ojha (24) was caught at covers. With still 11 runs required off 8 balls it looked like RCB might pull things back but Darren Sammy smoked one back over bowler for a six to get off the mark in style and leave SRH to get four runs from last over. Sammy and Finch then scampered for couple of singles and a double to steer SRH home by seven wickets in last over.

Varun Aaron (2-36) was the lone RCB bowler to pick wickets as other bowlers failed to leave the mark.

Earlier, quick wickets upfront pegged back RCB but Virat Kohli batted his team out of trouble along with Yuvraj Singh and AB de Villiers to post a respectable score. Kohli who scored his first half-century of this season looked in good touch and hammered SRH bowlers hitting four 4s and equal number of 6s.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-27) was once again pick of the bowlers by scalping two wickets in his four overs. Parvez Rasool (1-26), Karn Sharma (1-27) and Irfan Pathan (1-28) too chipped in with wickets.