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New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets to face Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 and they also qualify for Champions League.
Brad Hodge's onslaught resurrected the Rajasthan Royals run chase and gave them hope to pull off a victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL Eliminator match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi.
Hodge smash two sixes in first last two balls of last over of Darren Sammy. He also blasted Karan Sharma for two sixes and one boundary in his over before smashing Amit Mishra over the fence in the next over.
Hodge put up a 45-run partnership with Sanju Samson for the sixth wicket and added unbeaten 33 runs partnership with James Faulkner.
The Royals lost the wickets of Shane Watson, Dishant Yagnik, Ajinkya Rahane and Stuart Binny in successive overs to dent their run chase of 133 runs.
The party started when Darren Sammy took a brilliant catch on the boundary off Karan Sharma's bowling to get rid of Watson.
Watson (24 off 15) hit 5 boundaries in his fiery yet short-lived innings and put up a 37-run stand with Rahane to steady the Rajasthan run chase after losing skipper Rahul Dravid early.
Sammy then came into the bowling attack and ended Yagnik's (0) misery at the crease by getting the better of the Rajasthan batsman's off-stump.
In the very next over, Amit Mishra rubbed more salt on the Royals' wounds by catching Rahane off his own bowling before Sammy clean bowled Binny (2) to leave the Royals reeling at 57/5 after 10 overs.
Rajasthan lost their first wicket when a leading edge off Ishant Sharma's good length delivery got Dravid (12) caught by Karan Sharma at point.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals produced a disciplined bowling performance as they restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to 132 for seven.
All the Royals bowlers did a splendid job as Sunrisers batsmen could never really force the pace during the entire 20 overs save West Indies skipper Darren Sammy (29, 3x6) striking a few lusty blows during the fag end of the innings.
Shikhar Dhawan (33, 39 balls, 3x4) was the other significant contributor although his innings was an uncharacteristic one by his standards as the slowness of the track did not help his cause either.
While Vikramjeet Malik (2/14) provided twin breakthroughs, James Faulkner (1/28) and Siddharth Trivedi (1/18) consistently hit the right length on a track that was totally different from the one on which Chennai Super Kings batsmen ran riot in the Qualifier on Tuesday.
Portly Himachal Pradesh medium pacer Malik was rewarded for his wicket-to-wicket bowling as he removed Parthiv Patel (1) and Hanuma Vihari (1) off successive overs.
Earlier, Hyderabad Sunrisers have won the toss and elected to bat.
Hyderabad only change Ishant Sharma is back for Anand Rajan.
Couple of changes in Rajasthan, Pravin Tambe is injured. Vikramjeet Malik is in. Dishant Yagnik replaces Sachin Baby.
Teams
Rajasthan Royals: SV Samson, R Dravid (captain), AM Rahane, VS Malik, SR Watson, STR Binny, SK Trivedi, BJ Hodge, K Cooper, JP Faulkner, DH Yagnik (wk)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: NLTC Perera, S Dhawan, PA Patel (wk), K Sharma, GH Vihari, DJG Sammy, DW Steyn, CL White (captain), BB Samantray, I Sharma, A Mishra
Brief scores
Sunrisers Hyderabad 132/7 (Dhawan 33, White 31, Malik 2-14)
Rajasthan Royals 135/6 (Hodge 54*, Sammy 2-27)
Result Rajasthan Royals won by 4 wickets
MOM Brad Hodge (Rajasthan Royals)
