Kolkata: Bhuvneshwar Kumar and skipper Kane Williamson shone for Sunrisers Hyderabad as they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets to register their third win of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday.
Chasing a modest target of 139, Hyderabad got off to a good start with openers Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha on the attack. For once, Saha was the more aggressive of the duo as he slammed three boundaries in one Mitchell Johnson over to set the ball rolling.
However, the 32-run partnership was finally broken when Sunil Narine was introduced into the attack and he got rid of Saha on his first delivery itself. Then, in his next over, Narine castled in-form Dhawan to further dent the Hyderabad batting line-up.
Kuldeep Yadav too joined in the party as he removed Manish Pandey for just 4 runs. At this point, Hyderabad were reeling at 53/3 in 8.4 overs and needed a partnership too keep them afloat in the match as the spinners were taking full control of the match.
Skipper Kane Williamson then found an able partner in Shakib Al Hasan and the duo started the rebuilding job by playing cautious cricket. Williamson finally cut loose in the 10th over when he slammed two fours off the bowling of Kuldeep to end the barren run of boundaries.
Then, Shakib also issued a stunning fightback and he slammed couple of fours and one huge six off the bowling of Andre Russell to put Hyderabad firmly in control of the match.
Piyush Chawla finally managed to get the wicket of Shakib in the 16th over and that pegged the away side back a bit. But Williamson kept going and notched up his well deserved fifty off just 43 deliveries.
However, he lost his concentration after reaching his half-century and gave away his wicket to Mitchell Johnson. But Yusuf Pathan then took centrestage and slammed a quickfire 17 off 7 deliveries to take Hyderabad over the line and register their first ever victory at this venue.
Earlier, a superb bowling performance led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar helped Hyderabad restrict Kolkata to a modest 138/8 in the rain-interrupted match. Bhuvneshwar once again shone at the death, claiming 3/26 as Kolkata's batting line-up failed to shine in front of their home support.
Bhuvenshwar provided with the first breakthrough of the day by dismissing Robin Uthappa in the third over after a successful use of the DRS.
Bhuvneshwar's breakthrough and a tidy two-run over by Stanlake had KKR struggling for 23/1 in four overs before Lynn and Rana seized the momentum in two overs off Siddharth Kaul and Rashid Khan who leaked 14 and 12 overs respectively in their first overs.
KKR were looking good with Lynn and Rana in the middle before rain stopped the play at the score of 52/1 in seven overs.
But post the interruption, Hyderabad came back into the match in style, with Manish Pandey taking a splendid catch off the bowling of Stanlake to remove Rana. The southpaw hit Stanlake firmly just wide of Pandey, who showed amazing reaction to grab it on the second attempt.
Sunil Narine was the next to depart as he was dismissed by Shakib for 9. Lynn tried his best to up the ante but he too was dismissed by Shakib before he could complete his half-century. Dinesh Karthik played a good hand of 29 off 27 but none of the other batsmen got going and KKR were could only muster 138 in their designated 20 overs.
IPL 2018, Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Highlights: As It Happened
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