HY­DER­ABAD–West In­dies cap­tain Dar­ren Sam­my blast­ed two six­es in the penul­ti­mate over to fire Sun­ris­ers Hy­der­abad in­to the play­offs of the In­di­an Pre­mier League in In­dia, yes­ter­day.

Chas­ing a mod­er­ate 131 for vic­to­ry, Sun­ris­ers com­plet­ed vic­to­ry by five wick­ets over de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Kolkata Knight Rid­ers with sev­en balls to spare at the Ra­jiv Gand­hi In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um, to claim the fi­nal play­off spot at the ex­pense of Chris Gayle's Roy­al Chal­lengers Ban­ga­lore.

En­ter­ing the con­test with Sun­ris­ers need­ing just 23 from 24 balls, Sam­my watched as West In­dies off-spin­ner Sunil Nar­ine sent down a maid­en off the 17th over of the in­nings and seam­er Sha­mi Ahmed re­strict­ed scor­ing in the 18th over to eight runs.

With pres­sure build­ing and ten­sion ris­ing in the Sun­ris­ers camp, Sam­my held his nerve to twice clear the ropes with left-arm spin­ner Iqbal Ab­dul­la off the fourth and fifth de­liv­er­ies of the 19th over, and fin­ish the match in style.

He fin­ished on 17 not out from 12 de­liv­er­ies.

Sun­ris­ers will now face Trinida­di­an Kevon Coop­er's Ra­jasthan Roy­als in the first play­off game on Wednes­day.

Need­ing to win af­ter RCB beat Chen­nai Su­per Kings by 24 runs on Sat­ur­day, Sun­ris­ers start­ed well, re­strict­ing to Knight Rid­ers to 130 for sev­en, with Yusuf Pathan top scor­ing with an un­beat­en 49.

South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn cap­tured two for 24 while Sam­my's soli­tary over cost nine runs.

In re­ply, Parthiv Pa­tel (47) and Shikhar Dhawan (42) put on 89 off 66 balls for the first wick­et, to lay the foun­da­tion for Sun­ris­ers' suc­cess­ful run chase.

In the ear­li­er match, Pune War­riors In­dia beat the Del­hi Dare­dev­ils by 38 runs at the Sub­ra­ta Roy Sa­hara Sta­di­um in Pune. Bat­ting first Pune, rid­ing on their skip­per Aaron Finch's half-cen­tu­ry, post­ed 172 be­fore their bowlers re­strict­ed Del­hi to 134. (CMC)

scores

Sun­ris­ers Hy­der­abad 132 for 5 (Parthiv 47, Dhawan 42, Ab­dul­la 3-29) vs Kolkata Knight Rid­ers 130 for 7 (Yusuf 49 , Steyn 2-24). Sun­ris­ers won by five wick­ets.

Pune War­riors 172 for 5 (Finch 52, Wright 44, Kaul 2-27) vs Del­hi Dare­dev­ils 134 for 9 (Gau­tam 30, Math­ews 3-14, Mur­taza 3-15). War­riors won by 38 runs.

Up­com­ing match­es

To­mor­row

Qual­i­fi­er 1: Chen­nai Su­per Kings v Mum­bai In­di­ans

Wednes­day

Elim­i­na­tor: Ra­jasthan Roy­als v Sun­ris­ers Hy­der­abad

IPL STND­INGS

Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR

Chen­nai Su­per Kings 16 11 5 0 0 22 +0.530

Mum­bai In­di­ans 16 11 5 0 0 22 +0.441

Ra­jasthan Roy­als 16 10 6 0 0 20 +0.322

Sun­ris­ers Hy­der­abad 16 10 6 0 0 20 +0.003

R. Chal­lengers Ban­ga­lore 16 9 7 0 0 18 +0.457

Kings XI Pun­jab 16 8 8 0 0 16 +0.226

Kolkata Knight Rid­ers 16 6 10 0 0 12 -0.095

Pune War­riors 16 4 12 0 0 8 -1.006

Del­hi Dare­dev­ils 16 3 13 0 0 6 -0.848