Kolkata beats Hyderabad after super over

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Oct 18, (AP): New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson made an instant impact in his first appearance in this season’s Indian Premier League with a five-wicket haul as Kolkata Knight Riders edged out Sunrisers Hyderabad in a super over on Sunday.

Ferguson took 3-15 in the regulation 20-over game and then held the opposition to two runs in the super over when he also clean bowled David Warner and Abdul Samad within the first three balls.

Kolkata notched the required three runs within four balls off ace leg-spinner Rashid Khan to record their fifth win in the tournament and stay fourth in the table.

Earlier, Ferguson mixed his pace with some brilliant leg-cutters to restrict Hyderabad to 163-6 in reply to Kolkata’s 163-5.

Needing 17 runs off limping Andre Russell’s last over, Warner hammered three of his five boundaries against the West Indian. But with two required off the last ball, Russell gave away only one to force the game into a super over as the Hyderabad skipper stayed unbeaten on 47 off 33 balls. Ferguson made an immediate impact when he had countryman Kane Williamson (29) caught at third man off his first ball and then in the next over had Priyam Garg clean bowled with a slower delivery to push Hyderabad’s run-chase off track.

He later returned and had Manish Pandey clean bowled and could have got Samad’s wicket in his last over but Russell dropped a hard catch at backward point.

Samad fell for 23 in the penultimate over when Ferguson relayed the ball back to Shubman Gill on the edge of the boundary to complete the catch before Warner couldn’t take his team over the line in the last over.

Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan scored his first Twenty20 century and Axar Patel blasted three sixes in the last over as Delhi Capitals beat Chennai Super Kings by five wickets on Saturday to go top of the Indian Premier League.

Delhi lead with 14 points after their seventh win in nine games. Bangalore are joint second with Mumbai on 12 points. The defeats pushed Rajasthan and Chennai into a very tight corner with six points each from nine games and only five league matches left.

Dhawan was unbeaten on 101 off 58 balls, hitting 14 fours and a six, but the left-hander was dropped three times and also successfully went for referral just before reaching his first hundred.

Patel was 21 not out off only five balls, and his last-over blitz against the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja carried Delhi to 185-5 with a ball to spare in reply to Chennai’s total of 179-4.

Dhawan was twice dropped in the 20s and, soon after completing his half century, survived again when Chennai captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni couldn’t hold onto a low edge. The Delhi opener also successfully overturned an lbw decision through a review on 99 before reaching the landmark with a single.

“It is very special,” Dhawan said. “I’ve been playing for 13 years and this is the first (century), so really happy,” Dhawan said. “I keep my mindset quite positive. Just look to score runs and not think pitch is doing this or that. I play with courage. I am not afraid to get out.”

Faf du Plessis had top-scored with 58 for Chennai, with the total boosted by Ambati Rayudu’s 45 off 25 and Jadeja’s 13-ball knock of 33 with four sixes.

Despite all their fielding lapses, Chennai stretched the game into the last over with Delhi requiring 17 to win. But Patel hit Jadeja (0-35) for two sixes off the second and third deliveries and sealed the victory in style off the penultimate ball with another six over long-on.

Kilde didn’t leave the venue, staying around to see how his teammate would do, despite failing to finish his first run. Kilde came wide on a left turn and lost his right ski when he caught a bump.

Last year’s winner, Alexis Pinturault, missed the podium by 0.03 seconds in fourth, while GS world champion Henrik Kristoffersen finished in joint fifth place with Loic Meillard, the third Swiss skier in the top five.

Ted Ligety, who won the race a record four times, was 10th after the opening run but the American’s left ski came off early in his second.

With Braathen and Odermatt, who turned 23 this month, a younger generation occupied the top spots in the season’s first race.

“You can only dream of such a start to the season,” Odermatt said.

The GS has become a wide-open discipline since the retirement of Marcel Hirscher. The dominant Austrian won the GS season title six times in seven years before ending his career in 2019. Last season, Kristoffersen scooped the title, but Pinturault, Croatia’s Filip Zubcic and Slovenia’s Zan Kranjec all finished within 30 points of the Norwegian’s tally after seven races.

The Russian team was excluded from Sunday’s race after coronavirus tests of two of its coaches came back with unclear results.

The team, including racers Pavel Trikhichev, Alexander Andrienko and Ivan Kuznetsov, was isolated awaiting results of retests.

No spectators were allowed at the race as one of the precautionary health and safety measures amid the pandemic.

The next World Cup races are parallel events for men and women in another Austrian resort, Lech/ Zuers, on Nov 13-14.