Bengaluru, May 30: For Sunrisers Hyderabad (SH), winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) title for the first time was like sun rising at midnight, as they beat three-time finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by eight runs in an exciting contest at the Chinnaswamy stadium here on Sunday night.
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Winning the toss and putting up a challenging target of 209 for Royals, Hyderabad bowlers showed their mettle by halting RCB's star-studded batting line up at 200 for 7 wickets in 20 overs, though they were plundered by RCB openers Chris Gayle and skipper Virat Kohli, who posted 114 in first 10 overs.
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"When Gayle was going great guns, we knew it was difficult to stop him. The hardest thing for us was to maintain composure and have belief in ourselves. We know once he was gone, it would be difficult for the second and the third batsmen to pick up the momentum," a beaming Sunrisers captain David Warner told reporters on early Monday with the golden Trophy glittering next to him.
Crediting his whole team for the dramatic win after a marathon run to the final, Warner said they would like to first enjoy the victory tonight (Sunday night) and thank everybody for supporting SH throughout.
Owned by Kalanithi Maran of the Chennai-based Sun television network, Sunrisers replaced Deccan Chargers, whose franchise was terminated by IPL in 2012.
(Twitter reactions to SRH's win)