Kolkata Knight Riders held their nerve and recorded one of their most thrilling wins this season as they defeated the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to proceed towards the second qualifier.
Batting first at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on the backs of skipper David Warner (37), Kane Williamson (24) and Vijay Shankar’s 17 ball 22 to post 128 runs on the board.
The last time these two sides met, David Warner had blasted his way to a powerful ton and had literally tore apart the KKR bowling. This time around, he was dismissed for just 37 runs.
The KKR bowlers were very impressive as led by a returning Nathan Coulter-Nile (3/20), Umesh Yadav (2/21), Trent Boult ( 1/30) and Piyush Chawla ( 1/27) they restricted the Hyderabad side, who are heavy on batting to just 128 runs.
But even before the second innings began, the heavens decided to open up as for almost three hours, it rained. Play finally resumed much to the delight of the fans as the KKR management sent Robin Uthappa to accompany Chris Lynn this time. The revised target was 48 runs to be chased with six overs in hand.
Lynn (6) smashed a six in the very first over but was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the same. Yusuf Pathan (0) just walked in to the crease and had to walk away to the dressing room as he was run out in an attempt to steal a single. Uthappa (1) was dismissed too in the next over when skipper Gautam Gambhir joined KKR debutant Ishank Jaggi in the centre.
The experience of Gambhir (32*) came handy for the KKR team as he shared an unbeaten 36 run stand with Ishank Jaggi (5*) and successfully steered his side to a seven wicket win avoiding any more hiccups.
Settling old scores
With this win, the Kolkata Knight Riders would now go on to face the Mumbai Indians on the 19th of May at the same venue. Kolkata have lost both their matches against them this season and would definitely look forward to settling some scores with them.
Brief scores-
Sunrisers Hyderabad 128/7 ( David Warner 37, Kane Williamson 24 ; Nathan Coulter-Nile 3/20) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 48/3 in 5.2 overs ( Gautam Gambhir 32*, Chris Lynn 6 ; Chris Jordan 1/9) by seven wickets ( by DLS method)
-Kolkata Bureau