Knight prevails over Sun
In a low-scoring thriller, Kolkata Knight Riders held its nerve to prevail over Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets in the IPL here on Sunday.
The win helped Kolkata consolidate its position at fourth in the table with 12 points in 13 matches. Hyderabad, meanwhile, slumped to its tenth loss from 12 games.
Required to chase 116, Kolkata opener Shubman Gill returned to form with a timely half-century scoring 57 (51b, 10x4). The in-form Venkatesh Iyer suffered a rare failure perishing for eight. Southpaw Nitish Rana made a useful contribution of 25 (33b, 3x4) and was involved in a crucial 55-run partnership with Gill.
Towards the end Dinesh Karthik brought his wealth of experience to the fore with an unbeaten 18 (12b, 3x4) and finished the match with a boundary and two balls to spare. Earlier, Kolkata produced a clinical bowling effort to restrict Hyderabad to a below-par 115 for eight.
Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson’s decision to bat first backfired as it lost wickets at regular intervals, failing to counter Kolkata’s incisive bowling, especially of Tim Southee as well as the spin duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
Already out of contention for a play-offs berth, Hyderabad witnessed a horrible start to its innings, losing Wriddhiman Saha for a duck off the second ball, LBW to Southee. Jason Roy (10) was the next to follow, caught by Southee off Shivam Mavi in the fourth over. Skipper Williamson (26 off 21 balls) tried to resurrect the innings and was looking good before he was run out by Shakib Al Hasan with the scoreboard reading 38 for three in 6.5 overs.
Once Williamson departed, it was a struggle for Hyderabad batsmen even though Priyam Garg (21) and Abdul Samad (25) tried to forge a partnership. Garg was holed out at deep midwicket to Rahul Tripathi off Chakravarthy, while Jason Holder (2) fell to the same bowler in his next over.
Samad tried his best to pick up the tempo in the last five overs, hitting three lusty sixes but eventually perished in search of quick runs. The spin duo of Shakib (1/20) and Narine were brilliant in the middle overs as Hyderabad batsmen found the going tough. While Narine returned wicketless, he was economical, finishing with impressive figures of 4-0-12-0. Southee (2/26), Mavi (2/29) and Varun (2/26) shared six wickets between them.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 115/8 in 20 overs (K Williamson 26, A Samad 25, T Southee 2/26, V Chakravarthy 2/26) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 119/4 in 19.4 overs (S Gill 57)