Sunrisers Hyderabad produced a clinical performance to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets and stay alive in the Indian Premier League playoff race, in Sharjah on Saturday.
SRH first produced a brilliant bowling effort to restrict a batting-heavy RCB to a modest 120/7 and then chased down the target in 14.1 overs to climb to fourth spot in the standings from seventh.
The Sunrisers now have 12 points from 13 games and need to win their last league game against table-toppers Mumbai Indians to stay in the hunt.
RCB, who needed a win to seal their Play-offs berth, slumped to their third consecutive defeat in the tournament but stayed at second place in the table with 14 points from 13 games.
The 121-run target was always going to be achievable for SRH on a small ground like Sharjah unless RCB inflicted early damage which they failed to do. RCB removed SRH skipper…