On a day when two of Australia's master pacemen both took a hammering, Pat Cummins finished victorious but it was still his mate Josh Hazlewood who ended up with the bigger smile.
For Hazlewood's defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru were perfectly happy to get soundly beaten by 55 runs, having sacrificed trying to defeat the Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad to ensure they finished atop the IPL table on Friday.
After Cummins went for 48 runs off his four-over allocation and Hazlewood leaked 55 off his, with neither grabbing a wicket, Bengaluru will next host second-placed Gujarat Titans in the first playoff on Tuesday, with the winners going straight into the May 31 final in Ahmedabad.
Hyderabad, third in the table, will then host the second playoff on Wednesday against a team yet to be determined.
Cummins knew his side would have to carve out a massive win to leap into the top two, and even though his side posted a massive 4-255, thanks to half-centuries from Ishan Kishan (79), Abhishek Sharma (56) and Heinrich Klaasen (51), it meant RCB only needed to reach 166 to be sure of the runner's up spot.
That proved no problem thanks to a blazing start from Venkatesh Iyer (44 off 19), and even though Virat Kohli (15) and Devdutt Paddikal (21) went cheaply, captain Rajat Patidar (56) and Krunal Pandya (41no) then turned their attention to getting to 166 rather than chasing the unlikely win.
They got to that landmark in the 17th over, then passed 178 to ensure they finished top of the table. Eventually, they finished on 4-200 after Tim David delivered one little blast of 15 off seven balls.
"The top priority was to be on the top. The target was a lot," Patidar explained, praising the the Hyderabad top-five, including Travis Head, who kicked off with 26 off 16 with five boundaries.
RCB's opening bowling duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood have rarely been treated quite as roughly, with the pair going for 106 runs off their eight wicketless overs. One Hazlewood over went for 27, including 23 from Klaasen's bat.
"It's pretty impressive to get the score that we did," Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins said. "Everyone's hitting their straps."
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Even his star batter Head is thriving in unlikely fashion -- with the ball.
Asked to deliver the penultimate over, his first of the season, for a bit of fun, it took him just two balls to achieve what his illustrious bowling compatriots had failed to do all match -- take a wicket.
With a lovely long hop, he persuaded Patidar to plonk one straight into the hands of deep midwicket, to everyone's amusement except, doubtless, the RCB skipper. It was his first IPL wicket in nine years!
With agencies
