And the trophy goes to... Hyderabad

Bengaluru, May 29 

Sunrisers Hyderabad ruined Virat Kohli's fairytale season, beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 runs in a high-octane summit clash to walk away with their maiden IPL trophy here tonight.

In a battle between the IPL's best batting and bowling line-ups, the Orange Army came on top despite the initial blitzkrieg from Chris Gayle and Kohli, defending their total of 208/7 by restricting the home team to 200/7.

It was David Warner's batting and astute captaincy, complemented by some inspirational death-overs bowling by Mustafizur Rahaman (1/37 in 4 overs) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/25 in 4 overs), that clinched the issue for Hyderabad. Warner, who hit 68, finished second on the run-getters' list with 848 runs.

The turning points of the match were provided by Hyderabad's all-rounder Ben Cutting. First, he plundered 24 runs off the last over, bowled by Shane Watson, and then he dismissed the dangerous Gayle when the latter was threatening to run away with the game.

Gayle (76 off 38 balls) and skipper Kohli (54 off 35 balls) had a scintillating opening stand of 114 in 10.3 overs. At that stage, it appeared it would be a cakewalk for the hosts.  

Once the duo was gone, the responsibility fell on AB de Villiers (5) but the South African had a bad day. KL Rahul was done in by a slow off-cutter from Cutting and Watson found it hard to get the big shots going as Mustafizur accounted for him. 

With 18 needed off the last over, Bhuvneshwar, who bowled 13 dot balls, gave away just 9 runs. As the last ball was delivered, skipper Warner's joy knew no bounds, with the entire team and the dug-out joining him in wild celebrations.

In the end, Kohli was the tragic hero. He finished the tournament with an astounding 973 runs at an average of 81.08 and an equally impressive strike-rate of 152.03. He hit an unbelievable four hundreds and seven half-centuries, not to forget 83 boundaries and a staggering 38 sixes. — PTI