IPL 9 Final: How RCB, Sunrisers got there!

Rajneesh Gupta's fascinating look at the routes RCB and Sunrisers Hyderabad took to the IPL 9 final.

Virat Kohli looks to the heavens after guiding RCB to the Playoffs after the victory against the Delhi Daredevils at Raipur, May 22.

IMAGE: Virat Kohli looks to the heavens after guiding RCB to the Playoffs after the victory against the Delhi Daredevils at Raipur, May 22. Photographs: BCCI.

Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad -- the two sides in the IPL 9 final -- were the two best sides in the tournament without doubt.

Both RCB and Sunrisers had an entirely different route to the final.

RCB had a horrible start to IPL 9, losing 5 of their first 7 games. They were languishing in 7th place among the 8 teams at the half-way stage. Virat Kohli's team then witnessed a dramatic change in its fortunes.

With 4 games to play, RCB needed to win all 4 to remain in a contention for the Playoffs. Virat then showed why he is rated so high among contemporary batsmen.

In the 4 must win games, Virat scored 109, 75*, 113 and 54* and ensured RCB entered the Playoffs as the second ranked team.

In the first Qualifier they were up against table-toppers Gujarat Lions. Chasing a modest 159, RCB were reeling at 29/5, but an A B de Villiers special clinched RCB an improbable win and took them to the final.

David Warner's majestic unbeaten 93 took the Sunrisers Hyderabad to its maiden IPL final

IMAGE: David Warner's majestic unbeaten 93 took the Sunrisers Hyderabad to its maiden IPL final.

Sunrisers suffered a loss in their first 2 games, but then won 7 out of the next 8, thanks to skipper David Warner's shrewd captaincy and amazing batting.

The team lost a few games more than their liking towards the end of the group, but reached the Playoffs as the third ranked team.

In the Playoffs, Sunrisers first beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by choking the opposition in the last five overs. The way Sunrisers bowlers sent down yorker after yorker cramping the batsmen in the final stages of the game was simply amazing.

In the second Qualifier Sunrisers chased down Gujarat Lions' 162 thanks to another Warner special.

ROAD TO THE FINAL: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Date	Venue	Batted 1st		Batted		Result
12-Apr	Bangalore	RCB	227-4 (20)	SRH	182-6 (20)	RCB won by 45 runs
17-Apr	Bangalore	RCB	191-5 (20)	DD	192-3 (19.1)	DD won by 7 wickets
20-Apr	Mumbai WS	RCB	170-7 (20)	MI	171-4 (18)	MI won by 6 wickets
22-Apr	Pune	RCB	185-3 (20)	RPS	172-8 (20)	RCB won by 13 runs
24-Apr	Rajkot	RCB	180-2 (20)	GL	182-4 (19.3)	GL won by 6 wickets
30-Apr	Hyderabad	SRH	194-5 (20)	RCB	179-6 (20)	SRH won by 15 runs
02-May	Bangalore	RCB	185-7 (20)	KKR	189-5 (19.1)	KKR won by 5 wickets
07-May	Bangalore	RPS	191-6 (20)	RCB	195-3 (19.3)	RCB won by 7 wickets
09-May	Mohali	RCB	175-6 (20)	KXIP	174-4 (20)	RCB won by 1 run
11-May	Bangalore	RCB	151-4 (20)	MI	153-4 (18.4)	MI won by 6 wickets
14-May	Bangalore	RCB	248-3 (20)	GL	104 (18.4)	RCB won by 144 runs
16-May	Kolkata	KKR	183-5 (20)	RCB	186-1 (18.4)	RCB won by 9 wickets
18-May	Bangalore	RCB	211-3 (20)	KXIP	120-9 (20)	RCB won by 82 runs (D/L)
22-May	Raipur	DD	138-8 (20)	RCB	139-4 (18.1)	RCB won by 6 wickets
24-May	Bangalore	GL	158 (20)	RCB	159-6 (18.2)	RCB won by 4 wickets

ROAD TO THE FINAL: SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Date	Venue	Batted 1st		Batted		Result
12-04-2016	Bangalore	RCB	227-4 (20)	SRH	182-6 (20)	RCB won by 45 runs
16-04-2016	Hyderabad	SRH	142-7 (20)	KKR	146-2 (18.2)	KKR won by 8 wickets
18-04-2016	Hyderabad	MI	142-6 (20)	SRH	145-3 (17.3)	SRH won by 7 wickets
21-04-2016	Rajkot	GL	135-8 (20)	SRH	137-0 (14.5)	SRH won by 10 wickets
23-04-2016	Hyderabad	KXIP	143-6 (20)	SRH	146-5 (17.5)	SRH won by 5 wickets
26-04-2016	Hyderabad	SRH	118-8 (20)	RPS	94-3 (11)	RPS won by 34 runs (D/L)
30-04-2016	Hyderabad	SRH	194-5 (20)	RCB	179-6 (20)	SRH won by 15 runs
06-05-2016	Hyderabad	GL	126-6 (20)	SRH	129-5 (19)	SRH won by 5 wickets
08-05-2016	Visak’nam	SRH	177-3 (20)	MI	92 (16.3)	SRH won by 85 runs
10-05-2016	Visak’nam	SRH	137-8 (20)	RPS	133-8 (20)	SRH won by 4 runs
12-05-2016	Hyderabad	SRH	146-8 (20)	DD	150-3 (18.1)	DD won by 7 wickets
15-05-2016	Mohali	KXIP	179-4 (20)	SRH	180-3 (19.4)	SRH won by 7 wickets
20-05-2016	Raipur	SRH	158-7 (20)	DD	161-4 (20)	DD won by 6 wickets
22-05-2016	Kolkata	KKR	171-6 (20)	SRH	149-8 (20)	KKR won by 22 runs
25-05-2016	Delhi	SRH	162-8 (20)	KKR	140-8 (20)	SRH won by 22 runs
27-05-2016	Delhi	GL	162-7 (20)	SRH	163-6 (19.2)	SRH won by 4 wickets

RANKING IN GROUP STAGE

Rank	Team	Mts	Won	Lost	NR	Points	NRR
2nd	R Challengers Bangalore	14	8	6	0	14	+0.932
3rd	Sunrisers Hyderabad	14	8	6	0	16	+0.245

The contest between RCB and Sunrisers can be easily summed up as the contest between the best batting side and best bowling side in the tournament as is clear from the following tables:

BEST BATTING SIDES IN IPL 9

	Runs per wkt	Runs per over	Boundary%	4s hit	6s hit
Royal Challengers Bangalore	43.45	9.60	60.63	228	129
Kolkata Knight Riders	29.78	8.32	51.52	194	65
Mumbai Indians	26.12	8.16	58.89	185	92
Rising Pune Supergiants	30.79	8.14	52.93	171	68
Gujarat Lions	24.02	8.08	54.94	242	63
Sunrisers Hyderabad	27.39	8.00	53.47	211	79
Delhi Daredevils	27.32	7.94	52.57	179	65
Kings XI Punjab	23.45	7.92	50.98	191	54

BEST BOWLING SIDES IN IPL 9

	Runs per wkt	Runs per over	Boundary%	4s con'd	6s con'd
Sunrisers Hyderabad	26.15	7.83	52.44	210	68
Delhi Daredevils	27.36	8.07	53.25	192	59
Rising Pune Supergiants	27.80	8.15	53.86	172	75
Kolkata Knight Riders	24.69	8.21	56.10	192	89
Mumbai Indians	32.21	8.23	53.61	181	75
Gujarat Lions	32.19	8.45	55.70	225	92
Kings XI Punjab	30.59	8.56	55.89	207	70
Royal Challengers Bangalore	27.51	8.72	56.33	222	87

Virat Kohli and David Warner have been in great form this season, taking the burden of their teams' batting on their shoulders.

While Virat has scored 33% of all the runs scored by RCB, Warner is not far behind, scoring 31.6% of the runs scored by the Sunrisers.

HIGHEST CONTRIBUTION OF TEAM RUNS IN IPL 9

	For	Inns	Runs	Team Runs	%Team Runs
V Kohli	RCB	15	919	2781	33.05
DA Warner	SRH	16	779	2465	31.60
AB de Villiers	RCB	15	682	2781	24.52
F du Plessis	RPS	6	206	867	23.76
AM Rahane	RPS	14	480	2063	23.27
Q de Kock	DD	13	445	1942	22.91
RG Sharma	MI	14	489	2194	22.29
G Gambhir	KKR	15	501	2263	22.14
SPD Smith	RPS	7	270	1221	22.11
M Vijay	KXIP	14	453	2134	21.23

The head to head record between RCB and Sunrisers has been pretty even, overall as well as in this edition. RCB, though have a clear advantage at the home ground.

HEAD TO HEAD IN IPL

	Mts	RCB	SRH	No Result
Overall	8	4	4	0
at Bangalore	4	3	1	0
in IPL 2016	2	1	1	0

PREVIOUS MEETINGS BETWEEN TWO TEAMS IN IPL 9

Date	Venue	Batted 1st		Batted		Result
12-04-2016	Bangalore	RCB	227-4 (20)	SRH	182-6 (20)	RCB won by 45 runs
30-04-2016	Hyderabad	SRH	194-5 (20)	RCB	179-6 (20)	SRH won by 15 runs

Both ECB and Sunrisers have had more success batting second, but their record batting first is not poor either.

In fact, RCB's five wins are the most by a side batting first in the tournament, Sunrisers are second with four such wins.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE IN IPL 9

	Mts	Won	Lost	NR	Win%
Batting first	10	5	5	0	50.00
Batting second	5	4	1	0	80.00

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD IN IPL 9

	Mts	Won	Lost	NR	Win%
Batting first	8	4	4	0	50.00
Batting second	8	6	2	0	75.00

AVERAGE FIRST INNINGS SCORE IN IPL 9

RCB:		For: 192		Vs: 173
SRH:		For: 154		Vs: 161

The following table gives details of pattern of scoring for two teams in the tournament.

RCB have consumed fewer dot balls, taken more singles, twos and threes; and hit more boundaries.

PATTERN OF SCORING IN IPL 9 (BATTING)

	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Sunrisers Hyderabad
Dot%	31.01	37.70
1s,2s,3s%	48.57	46.63
4s,5s,6s%	20.42	15.67

This is how two teams have conceded runs off their bowling in IPL 2016.

SRH have bowled higher percentage of dots and allowed fewer boundaries.

PATTERN OF SCORING IN IPL 9 (BOWLING)

	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Sunrisers Hyderabad
Dot%	34.08	36.11
1s,2s,3s%	48.04	48.60
4s,5s,6s%	17.88	15.29

Following is a summary of the two teams' scoring rate at different stages of innings: First 6 overs, middle 9 overs and last 5 overs.

Among all teams RCB are the 2nd best in the first 6, best in the middle 9 and best in the last 5.

SRH are the 4th best in the first 6, worst in the middle 9 and joint 5th best in the last 5.

BATTING RUN-RATES IN DIFFERENT STAGES IN IPL 9

	1 to 6	7 to 15	16 to 20
Royal Challengers Bangalore	7.99	9.10	12.90
Sunrisers Hyderabad	7.72	7.43	9.59

A summary of the economy rate of the two teams in different stages.

SRH are the best in the first 6, 6th best in the middle 9 and the best in the last 5.

RCB are in the bottom half in all the three stages.

BOWLING RUN-RATES IN DIFFERENT STAGES IN IPL 9

	1 to 6	7 to 15	16 to 20
Royal Challengers Bangalore	7.98	8.27	10.72
Sunrisers Hyderabad	6.77	8.00	8.97

This is how pacers and spinners have performed for the two teams in the tournament.

Both the teams have pace-dominated attacks so much so that spinners have accounted for only 5 wickets for the Sunrisers in the whole tournament! <./p>

The 26% of RCB's wickets by spinners have mostly gone to Yuzvendra Chahal's leg-spin.

PACE VS SPIN IN IPL 9: RCB

	Wkts	Best	Avg	RPO	Wkts%
Pace	78	4-23	31.42	8.53	74%
Spin	28	3-27	33.39	8.56	26%

PACE VS SPIN IN IPL 9: SUNRISERS

	Wkts	Best	Avg	RPO	Wkts%
Pace	78	4/29	24.59	7.51	94%
Spin	5	2/16	86.20	8.89	6%

RCB BATSMEN IN IPL 9

	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	100s	50s	0s	SR
V Kohli	15	15	4	919	113	83.55	4	6	1	151.90
AB de Villiers	15	15	3	682	129*	56.83	1	6	1	170.07
KL Rahul	13	11	3	386	68*	48.25	0	4	1	147.33
SR Watson	15	14	2	168	36	14.00	0	0	1	134.40
CH Gayle	9	9	0	151	73	16.78	0	1	1	134.82
S Baby	10	5	1	101	33	25.25	0	0	1	146.38
SN Khan	5	4	2	66	35*	33.00	0	0	0	212.90
STR Binny	13	5	2	54	21	18.00	0	0	0	168.75
TM Head	3	3	1	54	37	27.00	0	0	0	135.00
KM Jadhav	4	3	3	42	25*	-	0	0	0	131.25
Iqbal Abdulla	7	1	1	33	33*	-	0	0	0	132.00
Parvez Rasool	4	1	0	10	10	10.00	0	0	0	111.11
D Wiese	1	1	1	5	5*	-	0	0	0	125.00
KW Richardson	4	1	1	1	1*	-	0	0	0	100.00
VR Aaron	8	1	1	0	0*	-	0	0	0	-
S Aravind	8	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-
YS Chahal	12	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-
CJ Jordan	8	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-
Mandeep Singh	1	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-
AF Milne	1	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-
HV Patel	5	1	1	0	0*	-	0	0	0	-
T Shamsi	4	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BOWLERS IN IPL 9

	Mts	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Best	Avg	SR	RPO	4W
SR Watson	15	315	0	424	20	4-29	21.20	15.75	8.08	1
YS Chahal	12	271	0	366	20	4-25	18.30	13.55	8.10	1
S Aravind	8	151	0	186	9	2-18	20.67	16.78	7.39	0
CJ Jordan	8	144	0	213	8	4-11	26.63	18.00	8.88	1
KW Richardson	4	84	0	136	7	3-13	19.43	12.00	9.71	0
Iqbal Abdulla	7	144	0	203	6	3-40	33.83	24.00	8.46	0
T Shamsi	4	96	0	147	3	1-21	49.00	32.00	9.19	0
S Baby	10	10	0	8	2	2-4	4.00	5.00	4.80	0
CH Gayle	9	42	0	39	2	2-11	19.50	21.00	5.57	0
VR Aaron	8	142	0	227	2	2-37	113.50	71.00	9.59	0
STR Binny	13	102	0	134	1	1-17	134.00	102.00	7.88	0
Parvez Rasool	4	84	0	129	1	1-31	129.00	84.00	9.21	0
HV Patel	5	84	0	147	1	1-46	147.00	84.00	10.50	0
AF Milne	1	24	0	43	1	1-43	43.00	24.00	10.75	0
D Wiese	1	24	0	49	0	0-49	-	-	12.25	0
V Kohli	15	6	0	13	0	0-13	-	-	13.00	0
AB de Villiers	15	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
TM Head	3	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
KM Jadhav	4	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
SN Khan	5	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
Mandeep Singh	1	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
KL Rahul	13	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD BATSMEN IN IPL 9

	Mts	Inns	NO	Runs	Hs	Avg	100s	50s	0s	SR
DA Warner	16	16	3	779	93*	59.92	0	8	1	149.23
S Dhawan	16	16	4	473	82*	39.42	0	4	1	117.08
Yuvraj Singh	9	9	1	198	44	24.75	0	0	0	126.92
MC Henriques	16	14	3	178	31*	16.18	0	0	1	116.34
DJ Hooda	16	14	1	141	34	10.85	0	0	0	122.61
NV Ojha	16	12	3	129	37	14.33	0	0	1	96.27
KS Williamson	6	6	0	124	50	20.67	0	1	0	101.64
EJG Morgan	7	6	1	123	51	24.60	0	1	1	117.14
A Ashish Reddy	4	3	1	47	32	23.50	0	0	0	162.07
B Sharma	6	3	2	46	27*	46.00	0	0	0	209.09
Bhuvneshwar Kumar	16	7	1	42	21	7.00	0	0	0	161.54
KV Sharma	5	3	3	36	26*	-	0	0	0	120.00
BCJ Cutting	3	3	1	26	18*	13.00	0	0	1	136.84
AP Tare	3	2	0	8	8	4.00	0	0	1	53.33
B Sran	13	4	4	4	2*	-	0	0	0	100.00
A Nehra	8	2	2	1	1*	-	0	0	0	100.00
TA Boult	1	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-
Mustafizur Rahman	15	0	0	0	0	-	0	0	0	-

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD BOWLERS IN IPL 9

	Mts	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Best	Avg	SR	RPO	4W
Bhuvneshwar Kumar	16	372	3	465	23	4-29	20.22	16.17	7.50	1
Mustafizur Rahman	15	342	1	384	16	3-16	24.00	21.38	6.74	0
B Sran	13	279	0	372	13	3-28	28.62	21.46	8.00	0
MC Henriques	16	294	0	375	12	2-17	31.25	24.50	7.65	0
A Nehra	8	156	1	199	9	3-15	22.11	17.33	7.65	0
BCJ Cutting	3	43	0	45	3	2-20	15.00	14.33	6.28	0
DJ Hooda	16	78	0	97	3	2-16	32.33	26.00	7.46	0
B Sharma	6	72	0	104	2	1-10	52.00	36.00	8.67	0
TA Boult	1	24	0	39	1	1-39	39.00	24.00	9.75	0
A Ashish Reddy	4	23	0	39	1	1-14	39.00	23.00	10.17	0
KS Williamson	6	6	0	7	0	0-7	-	-	7.00	0
Yuvraj Singh	9	37	0	52	0	0-7	-	-	8.43	0
KV Sharma	5	98	0	171	0	0-24	-	-	10.47	0
S Dhawan	16	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
EJG Morgan	7	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
NV Ojha	16	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
AP Tare	3	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0
DA Warner	16	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	0