NEW DELHI: Already out of the tournament, Sunrisers Hyderabad, who won the title way back in 2016, posted a decent total of 186, riding on Heinrich Klaasen's brilliant hundred. But Klaasen's valiant effort was overshadowed by run-machine Virat Kohli's 63-ball-100. Apart from a whirlwind century, Virat stitched a blistering 172-run opening stand with captain Faf du Plessis (71) to hand RCB a resounding eight-wicket win with four balls to spare.
Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Brian Lara admitted that his team came up against a "Virat Kohli at his best" but found it hard to explain why they lost six out of the seven home games, which dashed their IPL play-offs chances.
".. Our guys played brilliant cricket but we came up against Virat Kohli at his best, and Faf, who has done a tremendous job for RCB throughout the season. He (Faf) is current Orange Cap holder right? So we came up against two world class players and overall I felt was a good effort from the boys," Lara said after his team's ninth defeat in 13 games as they languish at the bottom of 10-team table.
The legendary southpaw couldn't put a finger on why SRH lost six home games which became their undoing.
"It's hard to sit here and explain in a broad sense why but just that we are going to get better, but this sort of record -- one win in seven (home games) is something you don't expect but it has happened," Lara said.
"It was a good learning experience. The spectators have been tremendous but may be we can start preparing from now, and pay them back for support they have us this year," he added.
Lara feels that Uppal Stadium track actually nullified home advantage as it was pretty good for batting and didn't give his team any distinct home advantage. Having said that, he praised curators for preparing a good track.
1/10:IPL: Virat, du Plessis keep RCB afloat
IANS
2/10:Centurions
<p>Virat Kohli's century stole the thunder from Heinrich Klaasen's maiden IPL ton as RCB kept their playoff hopes alive with an 8-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (Photo: RCB Twitter)<br /></p>Agencies
3/10:Maiden Ton
<p>It was the Klaasen show first, as the South African smashed 6 sixes & 8 fours to hit a sensational 104 off 51 balls to power SRH to 186/5 (Photo: BCCI/IPL)<br /></p>ANI
4/10:Joint Venture
<p>Kohli (100 off 63 balls) & Faf du Plessis (71 off 47) then continued their rich form to stitch a 172-run opening partnership & RCB won with 4 balls to spare (Photo: BCCI/IPL)<br /></p>PTI
5/10:Take a bow
<p>The win lifted RCB to No. 4 with 14 points and a better net run-rate than Mumbai Indians, who are also on 14 points (Photo: RCB Twitter)<br /></p>Agencies
6/10:King Kohli
<p>With his 6th IPL century, Virat equalled the record for most IPL hundreds, which until now was exclusively in Chris Gayle's name (Photo: BCCI/IPL)</p>PTI
7/10:Thank you, lord
<p>Kohli completed his hundred with a six off Bhuvneshwar before getting dismissed off the next ball. Du Plessis fell soon after to T Natarajan (Photo: BCCI/IPL)<br /></p>IANS
8/10:Partnerships
<p>After being asked to bat, Klaasen led the SRH batting chart & added 76 runs with Aiden Markram (18) & 74 runs with Harry Brook (27 not out) to take SRH to a competitive total (Photo: BCCI/IPL)<br /></p>AFP
9/10:Wicket-taker
<p>Michael Bracewell struck twice for RCB, removing openers Abishek Sharma (11) and Rahul Tripathi (15) in his first three balls (Photo: BCCI/IPL)<br /></p>TOI Sports
10/10:Not his day
<p>Karn Sharma was the most expensive among RCB bowlers, leaking 45 runs off his 3 overs without a wicket (Photo: BCCI/IPL)<br /></p>Agencies" There is a little bit of home advantage and you got to use your matches at home. It's your facility but in Hyderabad, I think it's fair conditions. At the end of the day, better team on the day wins the game. I must say I congratulate the ground staff for producing good tracks, it's just each and every time, we came up short," Lara said in his team's defence.
"I think it was a good pitch. It spun, it was a bit slow, There was purchase as the game went on. Tonight (Thursday), I felt my boys played very good cricket and took the game deep, but they were slightly better on the day, I am not overly disappointed with it, at the start of the season, if we could have taken it to the wire would have been brilliant," the holder of highest individual Test score, said.
(With inputs from PTI)
