It took a thrilling ‘Super Over’ to decide the winner of the spectacular match between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Sunday. Both the teams were head to head till the last ball of Super Over, but Steyn’s presence of mind outplayed Gayle’s intentions and Sunrisers won the match by five runs.

Here we bring before you the heroes and zeroes from the match.

HITS

Hanuma Vihari: His brilliant batting took the match to the Super Over. He scored 44 runs in his debut-innings. He picked up the wicket of the most dangerous batsman Chris Gayle on the very first ball of his IPL over. Though he bowled just one over, it had an impact throughout the batting of Royal Challengers Bangalore as they fell 20-30 run short.

Dale Steyn: Steyn-gunned down Chris Gayle in the Super Over. With 21 runs needed in the super over, Steyn gave away just 15 runs to hand over a thrilling win to the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Steyn bowled well but went for plenty in his four overs. He ended up with the figures of 1/37 in his four overs. He was stunned by Moises Henriques in his final over, but he bowled well in the initial overs to keep Tilakaratne Dilshan quiet.

Virat Kohli: Kohli played a captain’s knock and was looking in good knick. He kept the price on his wicket and kept his cool. He smashed the loose deliveries for the boundaries. He was looking in great touch but Ashish Reddy took the brilliant catch of his own bowling to give a big blow to RCB. The way he marshalled his troops in field was a treat to watch.

Moises Henriques: Henriques played brilliantly and kept his nerve to score those crucial 44 runs off just 40 balls. He accelerated the scoring rate in the last four overs and ensured that his team will get to a decent total of 130. He was not done yet and gave the early jolt to Sunrisers by picking up two crucial wickets of Cameron White and Parthiv Patel during the power play. He was roped in for Daniel Christian and he did justice to his selection with this spectacular performance.

Ishant Sharma: Ishant bowled really well in his final over and played an instrumental role in restricting the RCB to a low total. He chipped in with three wickets and gave away 27 runs.  He disguised the Henriques with his variation in pace and got him out on the first ball of the 20th over.

Amit Mishra: Amit Mishra bowled exceedingly well and gave away just 15 runs. His spell of four overs kept the batsmen thinking on how to tackle his subtle variations. By the time they would have decoded him, he got the breakthrough and he sent back Karun Nair to the pavilion.

FLOPS

Chris Gayle: Gayle did have his encounter with Steyn but he wasn’t good enough to smack him for much needed six of the last ball of Super Over. RCB scored 14 runs in that super over and fell short by five runs in the end. Gayle got out early in the match and after that RCB struggled badly. A lot of was expected of him  but Vihari dismissed him in his very first ball of his maiden IPL match.

Tilakaratne Dilshan: His back to back failures will surely make RCB think on replacing him with AB De Villiers the moment he joins the squad. After the early dismissal of Gayle, a steady approach was expected from him but he failed to deliver once again. His poor form top of the order is hurting the RCB badly.  He got out scoring just five runs and he bowled an over that cost him 10 runs.

By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network