No Smith, no Warner, no joy for IPL teams

Kane Williamson made a welcome return to form but the IPL sides of David Warner and Steve Smith both crashed to defeats without their Aussie stars on Saturday night.

Williamson, the New Zealand captain, had made a top score of just 14 from seven innings in this year's IPL before he struck an unbeaten 70 from 43 balls for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The Black Caps skipper more than doubled his entire season output in the innings, having made 58 runs in his previous seven knocks at just 9.66.

He struck four sixes and five fours in the knock – including taking 23 from the final over off Umesh Yadav – to help Sunrisers to 7-175.

With star imports Warner – still the tournament's leading run scorer this season – and Jonny Bairstow returned to their respective countries ahead of the World Cup, Sunrisers opened with Wriddhiman Saha (20) and Martin Guptill (30).

RCB chased the total down with four balls to spare after West Indies rising star Shimron Hetmeyer struck 75 from 47 balls to be named player of the match while Gurkeerat Singh Mann hit 65 from 48.

The pair put on 144 runs in 89 balls to revive the RCB run chase after a top order collapse that saw failures from Virat Kohli (16) and AB de Villiers (1).

RCB's victory was little more than consolation for their devoted band of followers with their side long eliminated from the IPL playoff race. Kohli and de Villiers led the side on a lap of honour after the win which lifted them off the bottom of the table.

Sunrisers, currently fourth, face an anxious wait for Sunday night's results to see if they will sneak into the final spot in the IPL finals.

In the earlier match, the Ricky Ponting-coached Delhi Capitals made light work of Rajasthan to register their ninth win of the season and give them every chance of securing a top-two finish and double chance in the looming finals.

Three wickets to Ishant Sharma and a run out reduced Rajasthan to 4-30 inside the powerplay and they never recovered.

Amit Mishra claimed 3-17 from his four overs to keep the brakes applied to Rajasthan and should have had a hat-trick, only for Trent Boult to drop a catch.

Rajasthan limped to 9-115 from their 20 overs and Delhi raced to the target with 23 balls to spare after Rishabh Pant smashed five sixes and two fours in an unbeaten 53 from 38 balls.

The loss eliminated Rajasthan from the playoff race.