Warner half-century, Cutting's blows take SRH to 208/7 vs RCB

Skipper David Warner blasted his way to a 38-ball-69 as unheralded Ben Cutting's incredible hitting enabled Sunrisers Hyderabad get to a competitive 208 for seven against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, here tonight.
This is the highest ever score by a team batting first in an IPL final.
It was little-known Cutting who smashed 39 off 15 balls with three boundaries and four sixes to take the Sunrisers past 200-run mark. The last three overs produced 52 runs while Shane Watson (0/61 in 4 overs) went for 24 in his final over out of which Cutting scored 23.

Warner once again led from the front with another sizzling knock but the likes of Yuvraj Singh (38, 23 balls), Shikhar Dhawan (28, 25 balls) frittered away promising starts before Ben provided the 'Cutting Edge' with some lusty late hitting
For RCB, Sreenath Aravind (2/30 in 4 overs), Chris Jordan (3/45 in 4 overs) were the main wicket-takers.
Sunrisers started the attack in the penultimate over of the Powerplay where skipper Virat Kohli introduced Shane Watson into the attack. As many as 19 runs came off that over.

Both Watson and Dhawan helped themselves to a six each -- the skipper hitting it over cover and the India international over long-on.

Chris Gayle, who shared the new ball with Sreenath Aravind had given 11 in his first two overs but went for 13 in the 6th over of the innings as the Powerplay yielded 59 runs.
It was the introduction of Yuzvendra Chahal that saw the home team drawing the first blood when Dhawan mistimed a slog sweep to be caught at square leg boundary by Jordan. The opening stand produced 63 runs.
Dhawan hit three fours and a six in his innings.
But there was no stopping Warner as he blazed his way to a 24-ball half centiry with two punish cut shots off Chahal, who lost the length of his leg breaks.

In the next over from Jordan, he first flicked and then cut the bowler for two boundaries.
Moises Henriques (4) may have shared a 34-run stand but it was all due to his skipper's pyrotechnics as Jordan had something to cheer with the batsman giving skier to Chahal at mid-wicket.
Yuvraj got into the groove with a couple of well-times boundaries -- a sweetly timed cover drive off Watson and then a whip off Jordan behind square. And he was not complete as the next was a six in the same region.