DELHI — An under-pressure unbeaten half-century from Brad Hodge snatched a four-wicket win for the Rajasthan Royals over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator, which was a low-scoring, yet nail-biting affair here Wednesday. The Royals will now take on the Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens Friday for a spot in the final. Chasing 133 for victory on a slow and low surface, Rajasthan needed 60 runs from the last 42 balls with just five wickets in hand at one stage, after a dramatic mid-innings collapse. But the 38-year-old chubby and short Australian, who last played an international match in 2008, steered Rajasthan home with an unbeaten 54. Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad managed just 132-7. After winning the toss, Hyderabad skipper Cameron White chose to bat first on a pitch that was rather different from the one used in Tuesday's Qualifier, where the Chennai Super Kings put on 192 on the board. White would have hoped for his team to make use of the dry surface and put on as many runs as possible. It came as no surprise when Sunrisers lost a couple of early wickets and then crawled along at a rate slower than a run a ball. Parthiv Patel, who had provided quite a few useful starts up the order, fell in the first over , before young Hanuma Vihari emulated his teammate in the second over.
At the halfway stage, Hyderabad was just 48 for two. Dhawan and Darren Sammy ambled on for a while, with the West Indian going for the occasional big shots, before James Faulkner took his 11th Hyderabad victim of the tournament when Dhawan's attempted scoop over short fine-leg went awry. However, the Sunrisers did manage to score 55 runs in the last five overs. Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 132-7 (S. Dhawan 33, C. White 31; V. Malik 2-14) lost to Rajasthan Royals 135-6 in 19.2 overs (B. Hodge 54 not out, S. Watson 24; D. Sammy 2-27) by 4 wickets. — Agencies
