Sunrisers Hyderabad! We finally have a new champion in the form of the Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2016. The men from Hyderabad became the first side to win an IPL trophy despite playing an eliminator and created history at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. For the Royal Challengers Bangalore though, questions linger around the side. They were guilty of panicking way too much once skipper Virat Kohli was dismissed in the run chase.
Sunrisers won the toss and opted to bat first. David Warner continued his great show at the top with another rapid half century. Veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh too chipped in with a valuable cameo. But the man of the day was Ben Cutting, who tore into Shane Watson in the final over to give his team an edge. The Royal Challengers seemed well on course for victory, but post Kohli’s wicket for 54, things went downhill quickly for the hosts. Sunrisers ended up winning the game by 8 runs to register their first ever IPL win.
In the post match presentation, Royal Challengers skipper Virat Kohli admitted that he was proud of his team’s performance. “I am really proud of the way we played this evening. The support was great from the crowd. I feel gutted that we didn’t do it for them. We were walking around to thank the crowd. Dan mentioned that scored 200 and we lost, it was just 8 runs but it matters. They capitalized on the key moments. I want to congratulate the Sunrisers, they are the deserving winners,” said Kohli.
Speaking about his own batting, Kohli said, “It’s a nice incentive for the way we’ve got about this season, but not that nice to be standing on the other side of the result. The reason why SRH won was because they had a strong bowling attack. I knew I was hitting the ball well, lucky that I was able to score. Why not? Records are meant to be broken. Someone with a better season can break this. Previous 770 odd was thought to be massive. We have to consider that I opened the batting and someone batting at No. 3 or down the order would not have had that much opportunities to score big.”
David Warner was ecstatic with his side’s victory in the tournament and he showered his team with praises. “It’s overwhelming for me to lead this side. I was happy that I led by example with the runs. It was a team effort. To have that perfect game and gel as a side, it’s really hard. They have a phenomenal squad. Look at the way Kohli led from the front. To win three games to win the tournament, to come to Bangalore and do this was special. The boys batted, bowled and fielded well,” said Warner.