Clinical Kolkata Knight Riders whip Sunrisers Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), when on the song, can be hard to beat. With the loss to Mumbai Indians off their minds, they dished out a brilliant all-around team effort that saw them thrash Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in Saturday’s IPL showdown at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium (RGICS), the first home match for SRH.

It is difficult to give credit only Umesh Yadav (3/28) or skipper Gautam Gambhir (90no) because KKR jelled as a team and that should be seen the biggest positive of the latest win. In a way, barring for a brief while when Eoin Morgan (51) and Naman Ojha (37) were stroking the comeback script for the host, which was reeling at a pathetic 50 for the loss of four wickets, KKR was in complete control of the proceedings after the home team opted to bat.

Gambhir showed his maturity as a captain by introducing strategies that paid off. Earlier, SRH did well by posting 142 for the loss of seven wickets despite early strikes by Yadav and Morne Markel (2/25). KKR went about the chase in remarkable fashion with the two openers, Gambhir and Robin Uthappa (38), adding 92 for the first wicket that left the others to complete the formalities with eight wickets and ten balls to spare.

As things stand and given the abject surrender in both their outings, only Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra could possibly rekindle hopes of SRH.

Scoreboard
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
David Warner c Suryakumar Yadav b Umesh Yadav 13,
Shikhar Dhawan c Uthappa b Morkel 6,
Moises Henriques lbw b Umesh 6,
Eoin Morgan c Shakib b Umesh 51,
Deepak Hooda c Umesh b Russell 6,
Naman Ojha c Chawla b Morkel 37,
Ashish Reddy run out 13,
Karn Sharma not out 2;

Extras: (Lb-2, W-4, Nb-1) 7;
Total: (for 7 wickets in 19.5 overs) 141;
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-23, 3-36, 4-50, 5-117, 6-128, 7-141;

Bowling:
Morne Morkel 4-0-35-2,
Umesh Yadav 4-0-28-3,
Shakib Al hasan 3-0-18-0,
Andre Russell 3.5-0-19-1,
Sunil Narine 4-0-26-0,
Piyush Chawla 1-0-13-0;

Kolkata Knight Riders:
Robin Uthappa lbw b Ashish Reddy 38,
Gautam Gambhir not out 90,
Andre Russell b Mustafizur Rahman 2,
Manish Pandey not out 11;

Extras: (W-5) 5;
Total: (For 2 wkts; 18.2 overs) 146;
Fall of wickets: 1-92, 2-97;

Bowling:
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-29-0,
Barinder Sran 4-0-31-0,
Mustafizur Rahman 4-0-29-1,
Karn Sharma 2.2-0-24-0,
Moises Henriques 2-0-19-0,
A Ashish Reddy 2-0-14-1.