WAITING FOR RAIN GODS TO BE KIND
Kolkata restrict Hyderabad to below par 128/7 in first innings
Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan is having some tense moments in the box. Rain disrupted play after Sunrisers Hyderabad had finished their innings.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) rode on a superlative show by their bowlers to restrict defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad to 128/7 in 20 overs in their rain-hit IPL Eliminator clash at a half-empty M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Wednesday. At the time of going to the press, KKR innings was not even started due to the rain that was lashing the stadium,
None of the Hyderabad batsmen could score a half century, with skipper David Warner managing only 37 off 35 balls as the highest score of the innings. Nathan Coulter-Nile (3/20) was the pick of the bowlers while Umesh Yadav (2/21) continued his good show.
Coulter-Nile leaked just three runs from the penultimate over with Trent Boult (1/30) allowing just seven in the final over also taking the wicket of Naman Ojha (16) off the final ball.
Hyderabad got off to a sedate start, managing just 30/1 in the Powerplay. In-form Shikhar Dhawan (11; 13b; 1x4) skied a rising Umesh delivery for wicket-keeer Robin Uthappa to pouch the ball.
Warner, in red-hot form, found the fence just twice in the first six overs with Dhawan pulling Umesh for another boundary before falling to his India teammate couple of overs later.
It took the generally explosive Warner eight overs to hit the first six of the match, punishing a poor Piyush Chawla ball by rocking on to his backfoot and pulling the leg-spinner to deep midwicket. At the halfway stage, the defending champions were 61/1.
With Shah Rukh Khan in attendance, the men in purple did well to put a lid on Hyderabad's run flow.
Umesh and Boult bowled brilliantly in the first 10 overs with the pair conceding 16 runs in three overs and 10 runs in two overs respectively.
Fit-again Coulter-Nile looked in good shape too, taking the wicket of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson (24; 26b; 2x4, 1x6) who hit a good length delivery outside off stump straight to Suryakumar Yadav -- playing in place of injured Manish Pandey -- at extra cover.
In the next over, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla -- drafted in for Colin de Grandhomme -scalped the priced wicket of Warner who saw his middle stump uprooted trying to pull a back of a length delivery.
Yuvraj Singh (9; 9b; 2x4)
struck two good looking boundaries but fell to Umesh's guile, pulling a bouncer straight down the throat of Piyush at deep square leg.
With the ball not coming on to the bat, Hyderabad batsmen could never get going. Vijay Shankar and Naman Ojha eked out an expensive over from Boult taking the Kiwi pacer for 13 runs.
But Shankar was out soon with Coulter-Nile taking his wicket only to pull off a superb catch off his own bowling to sent Chris Jordan back in the hut for a golden duck.