Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers by 4 wickets

New Delhi, May 22: Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets in the Pepsi IPL eliminator which was held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Chasing a target of 133, Hodge hit Darren Sammy for two consecutive sixes to finish the match with four balls to spare and ensure his team's qualification to the next edition of Champions League T20.

Royals will now meet Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier in Kolkata on Friday.

The 38-year-old 'T20 freelancer' clobbered his way to a 29-ball 54 not out as Royals pulled off one of their most significant victories after the 'spot-fixing' scandal broke out with the arrest of three of their cricketers including S Sreesanth.

Hodge came in at 57 for five but never looked under any kind of pressure as he hit five clean sixes apart from the couple of boundaries.

Skipper Rahul Dravid (12, 3x4) started with three boundaries but closed the face of the bat to an Ishant Sharma delivery which found the leading edge for the point fielder to take the catch.

However, Shane Watson kept on belting boundaries -- five of them -- as the Royals raced to 50 in the seventh over before the Aussie all-rounder was sent back due to an inspirational piece of fielding by Sammy.

Earlier, Rajasthan Royals bowlers produced a disciplined bowling performance to restrict Sunrisers to 132 for seven.

All the Royals bowlers did a splendid job as Sunrisers batsmen could never really force the pace during the entire span of 20 overs save West Indies skipper Sammy (29, 3x6) striking a few lusty blows during the fag end of the innings.