SRH beat KKR by five wickets. (Source: IPL)
Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets on Saturday to break the jinx and end their losing streak at the Eden Gardens. Led by a fluent fifty skipper Kane Williamson and a collective effort by the bowling unit, SRH registered their third win on the trot and are now sitting on top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) table. Batting first, KKR managed could only muster 138 runs as none of the batsmen, except Chris Lynn managed to convert their starts into a big inning. Led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake, SRH bowlers did a commendable job. While most of them were miserly in their spells, the variations in deliveries was the key as batsmen struggled to score on a sluggish batting track. Hyderabad’s fielding was equally exceptional with Manish Pandey taking a couple of blinders. Chasing small targets can be tricky at times but Hyderabad held on to their nerves and reached the target with six balls to spare. Meanwhile, the trend of teams winning the toss and going to register victories extended to 9 matches out of 10.
SRH are on top of the points table. (Source: BCCI)
Earlier, KKR got off to a good start after being asked to bat first. While the new opening pair of Lynn and Robin Uthappa did not last long, Nitish Rana forged a decent partnership with the Australian to put KKR in a commanding position at the end of the powerplay. However, play was interrupted due to rain and this resulted in a loss of momentum for the Knights. As play resumed after a delay of 30 minutes, KKR struggled to get going and loss of wickets at regular intervals hurt them most. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake were the wreckers in chief as they used their pace and deception to outfox the batsmen.
Top performance @SunRisers great team effort all round, nice to get our first win at Eden Gardens! #OrangeArmy #SRH
— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) 14 April 2018
In reply, SRH got off to a flier but an excellent spell by Sunil Narine in the powerplay pegged them back. Led by Narine, the tweakers spun a web around the SRH batters. But it was Kane Williamson who dug deep and anchored the innings. While he departed soon after scoring a 50, former KKR batsman Yusuf Pathan ensured that on this occasion there was no question of a tense finish and won the game by smashing a six in the last ball of the 19 the over.