IPL 2017 | Eden jinx continues for SRH as KKR register second home win
BCCI
An all round performance from the Kolkata Knight Riders led by Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey ensured a 17 run win over defending champions, Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kolkata have now leapfrogged Hyderabad into second place on the table as the visitors failed to register a win at the Eden Gardens again.
Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 172/6 (Robin Uthappa 68, Manish Pandey 46; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/20, Rashid Khan 1/29) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 155/6 (Yuvraj Singh 26, David Warner 26; Chris Woakes 2/46, Yusuf Pathan 1/2) by 17 runs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, who opted to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, brought Moises Henriques back in the squad, surprisingly leaving out Mustafizur Rahman. They also recalled all-rounder Bipul Sharma at the expense of Vijay Shankar. KKR, too, made one change as they brought back Kuldeep Yadav to replace leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.
Narine risk fails asĀ SRH get off to a good start
Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine were watchful for the first couple of overs with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ashish Nehra testing them with swinging deliveries. The early pressure exerted took a toll on Narine as Bhuvneshwar bowled him for 6. With Cutting coming into the attack, Gambhir and Uthappa went on the offensive and scored 13 runs of his first over. Uthappa welcomed Rashid Khan with a six over long-on, but the leggie got his revenge on Gambhir at the other end to make amends. Slowly and steadily, Uthappa and Manish Pandey started the KKR recovery and took the score to 75/2 at the midway point.Ā
Uthappa and Pandey steady the KKR ship
Having smashed Henriques for 14 runs in the 9th over, Uthappa greeted Henriques with a six over square leg off the first ball of the 11th over and brought up his 50 in the next one. The Kolkata wicketkeeper was given a second life in the 13th over when he was adjudged not to have hit a Nehra delivery to Naman Ojha. Uthappa made the most of his opportunity by smashing the next two balls for boundaries either side of the wicket in an over that cost the Sunrisers 14 runs. The 77-run stand was finally ended by Ben Cutting who sent Uthappa packing for 68 runs. Over the last five overs the home side scored just under 10 runs an over, thanks to some good bowling by Bhuvneshwar and Nehra, to set the Sunrisers a target of 173.
SRH follow KKR's lead while starting
The defending champions started their chase scoring just 10 runs in the first two overs but Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner made amends by hitting a series of boundaries off Umesh Yadav and Trent Boult in the third and fourth overs. Even the introduction of Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav couldnāt provide the Knight Riders with the early breakthrough they seeked as Sunrisers found themselves at a healthy 45/0 at the end of the powerplay. It was eventually Yusuf Pathan, in the 7th over, who got the first wicket for the home side by sending Dhawan back to the dressing room. It could have been a double whammy for the Sunrisers in the next over had Robin Uthappa managed to stump David Warner off Kuldeep Yadavās bowling. But didnāt matter too much as Kuldeep Yadav sent Warner packing for just 26 just before the halfway point of the innings.
Yuvraj blitz in vain as KKR secure second home win
Needing to score at over 11 runs an over, Moises Henriques decided to take on Chris Woakes and struck the Englishman for a boundary but was dismissed on the very next ball to put KKR in the driving seat. However, Yuvraj Singh and Deepak Hooda were up for the challenge as they finally picked up the pace. Yuvraj showed Umesh Yadav some vintage shots, smashing him for a six and a four of the first two deliveries of the 13th over, but Narine sent Hooda, 13 (7), back to the pavilion in the very next over. Yuvrajās fighting innings came to an end when he mistimed a Woakes bouncer straight down the throat of Ā Rishi Dhawan at long on. Cutting tried to pick up where Yuvraj had left off but he too perished for 15 off 10 balls. KKR, eventually, secured the win by 17 runs and rose above Hyderabad in the points table.
