Over to Hyderabad after Bangalore win

BANGALORE: Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their playoff hopes alive by batting Chennai Super Kings out of the game, reduced to eight overs-a-side due to rain here on Saturday night.
Virat Kohli led from the front with a blistering fifty to lift Royal Challengers to 106. Now Royal Challengers will be hoping for Sunrisers Hyderabad to lose to Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday for a possible backdoor entry to the playoffs.
Royal Challengers made a sound tactical move by opening with the captain Kohli who was the aggressor in the opening stand, facing more than half of the number of balls of the innings and scoring at a strike-rate of close to 200.
MS Dhoni opened with R Ashwin, presumably to keep Chris Gayle in check, but the batsman ended up playing only three deliveries off him. At the end of five overs, Royal Challengers blazed to 66, thanks to three consecutive sixes by Gayle off Jason Holder. Gayle and AB de Villiers holed out to the deep but importantly, Royal Challengers never allowed those dismissals to stall them. Kohli looked ominous with his flat sixes down the ground and he found an able partner in Moises Henriques, who ripped into Mohit Sharma to help take the score past 100.
Unlike Royal Challengers' move to promote Kohli, Super Kings were relatively conservative in their approach, not tinkering with their opening pair and, strangely, keeping Dhoni to No.5. Michael Hussey departed early, M Vijay struggled to get his fluency going, and the Royal Challengers bowlers got the ball to swing and bounce more than their opponents managed.
At the halfway stage of the chase, Royal Challengers held the edge with the score at 29 for 3. With 40 needed off the last over, the game was Royal Challengers' to lose. Zaheer Khan was the pick of the bowlers, nipping out four wickets in two overs in an eight-over contest.