Sunrisers Hyderabad, with five wins on the trot and an explosive batting line-up, were the favourites. But the Kolkata Knight Riders spun a trap around them and using the conditions in the afternoon Hyderabad heat, scripted the home team's downfall.
Just as they had done against Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens last month, Varun Chakravarthy (3/36) and Sunil Narine (2/31) made good use of the afternoon conditions, this time at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, to lay the platform for KKR’s seven-wicket victory. It also ended the Sunrisers’ winning streak. KKR’s playoffs prospects thus remain alive with three victories on the bounce.
The spells from Narine, who began the proceedings for KKR, and Varun were crucial in terms of restricting the Sunrisers to 165 despite a rousing start provided by Travis Head (61 off 28 balls), after the home team opted to bat first. Besides, Rovman Powell shone with yet another breathtaking catch, a one-handed take in the deep despite being off-balance. That sent back the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen at a critical phase of the Sunrisers innings.
Thereafter, a breezy 29 off 13 balls from Impact Player Finn Allen, who returned to the XI in place of Tim Seifert, gave the Knight Riders a headstart in the chase before Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s steady 59 (off 47 balls) eventually took them home with 10 balls to spare. However, the Knights’ net run rate would have been a tad better had they reached the target quicker.
Vital strikes
Even after Kartik Tyagi’s back-of-a-length stuff had got the better of Abhishek Sharma early, Head cut loose to help the Sunrisers race past 100 in the ninth over. Things looked ominous then for the Knights, but a long hop from Varun earned them the prized wicket of Head in the last ball of that ninth over.
Varun had done well not to give Head enough room to connect, as the left-hander perished at deep mid-wicket.
Since the departure of Head and that of Klaasen soon after, the Sunrisers’ progress was severely dented. The hosts also missed the services of all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was out with an illness. In his place, Ravichandran Smaran couldn’t step up as Varun took pace off to induce a mishit from the young Karnataka batter.
The slower ball worked for Varun on that surface as he executed it well again for his third, when Aniket Varma’s aerial hit was smartly taken at the cover region by skipper Ajinkya Rahane.
The double strike from Narine, the first overseas bowler with 200 wickets in the IPL, in the 16th over — when he bamboozled Salil Arora with subtle turn before shortening his length a bit to trap Ishan Kishan — gave KKR the momentum.
