Sunrisers Hyderabad Won the Tournament Due to their Strong Bowling: Virat Kohli
Sunrisers Hyderabad won their maiden Indian Premier League title by defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final by eight runs.
Highlights
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Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated RCB by eight runs in the 2016 IPL final.
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Virat Kohli ended up with 973 runs at an average of 81.
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Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the Purple Cap with 23 wickets.
Royal Challengers Bangalore missed out on winning the Indian Premier League title for the third time. After losing to Deccan Chargers in 2009 and Chennai Super Kings in 2011, Virat Kohli's team slipped up again in 2016 as they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight runs.
It was a bittersweet night for Kohli, who scored his 26th fifty but missed out on the record of scoring 1000 runs in an edition. RCB looked on course when they reached 100 in the ninth over but slipped up thanks to some disciplined bowling from SRH.
Chasing 209, RCB were on course with Chris Gayle and Kohli scoring at over 11 runs an over. However, David Warner backed his bowlers and they chipped away at vital times.
Ben Cutting, who had smashed an unbeaten 39 off 15 balls, sent back Gayle for 76 off 38 balls and Barinder Sran chipped in with the wicket of Kohli for 54. Bipul Sharma got rid of AB de Villiers for 5 and suddenly, SRH had changed the momentum of the match.
Speaking in the post-match presentation, Kohli said, "The reason why SRH won was because they had a strong bowling attack. It's a nice incentive for the way we've got about this season, but not that nice to be standing on the other side of the result."
"Me and AB getting out quickly was a big blow. Had I stayed with AB, we could have finished it," Kohli added.
© BCCI
Bhuvneshwar, Mustafizur Shine Towards The End
With Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman bowling brilliantly at the death, RCB never got back in the chase and ended up eight runs short. Bhuvneshwar was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-0-25-0 as he won the Purple Cap with 23 wickets while Mustafizur ended with figures of 4-0-37-1 as he ended up 17 wickets.
The 2016 IPL will be memorable for Kohli as he pushed his batting prowess to newer heights with 973 runs at an average of 81.08 with seven fifties and four centuries. However, he will be sad that RCB slipped up in front of his home fans at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.