Skipper Kane Williamson's brisk unbeaten half-century propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to a fighting 175/7 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) tie at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Saturday.
Despite a good start, Hyderabad were at 147/7 in 19 overs before Williamson (70 off 43) clobbered Umesh Yadav for 28 runs in the final six balls to help his side reach a challenging total. For the home side, Washington Sundar starred with the ball and picked up three wickets for 20 runs and Navdeep Saini got two wickets for 39 runs.
Williamson's knock was laced with five boundaries and four sixes.
Asked to bat, the visitors were off to a flying start as openers Martin Guptill (30 off 23) and Wriddhiman Saha (20 off 11) added 29 runs in the first three overs. The developing partnership, however, didn't last long as Saini's slower delivery was misread by Saha and he ended up giving an easy catch to Umesh at mid-on, leaving his side at 46/1.
Hyderabad then lost Guptill and Manish Pandey in quick succession as Sundar accounted for the wicket of both and the visitors were left reeling at 61/3 in 7.5 overs. Vijay Shankar (27 off 18) and Williamson then repaired the damages and added 45 runs to take Hyderabad past the three-digit mark.
With everything going well for the visitors, Sundar once again came with a breakthrough and packed back Vijay in the 14th over as Hyderabad scorecard read 106/4.
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Once again, Hyderabad lost three wickets of Yusuf Pathan (3), Mohammad Nabi (4) and Rashid Khan (1) in quick succession with the addition of just 33 runs.
However, Williamson only kept the scoreboard ticking but also hammered Bangalore bowlers at regular intervals before his last over carnage took his side to a fighting total.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 175/7 (Kane Williamson 70 not out, Martin Guptill 30; Washington Sundar 3/24) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore.
--IANS
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