Kolkata Knight Riders benefitted from their bowlers’ good work as they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in a rain-affected eliminator in Bengaluru late on Wednesday.
The bowlers were on the job for KKR as they restricted Hyderabad to just 128/7. Rain came down in Bengaluru and there were an almost three and a half hour delay. When it finally resumed, KKR needed 48 in six overs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. Though they lost three wickets quickly, Gambhir held fort to take Kolkata through.
Here are the moments of the match:
Slow Powerplay by Hyderabad
The Chinnaswamy surface this season has been slow and Hyerabad were caught in the quagmire. They scored 13 off the first two overs but Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed and things slowed down. They scored only 30/1 in 6 overs, their second-lowest Powerplay this season.
Warner’s wicket
Kane Williamson and David Warner had put on a good partnership and looked good. The first blow for Hyderabad was Williamson’s for 24. But Warner, after just about threatening to explode with two fours and two sixes, missed one from Piyush Chawla which thudded into his middle-stump.
KKR’s discipline
KKR’s bowling was based around great discipline. Only Piyush Chawla went above eight-an-over (1/27 off 3 overs) and Sunil Narine and Nathan Coulter-Nile impressed with figures of 0/20 and 3/20 respectively.
Crying in the rain
The moment Sunrisers Hyderabad finished their match, howling rain interrupted proceedings. The rain fell down relentlessly. It stopped for a brief while and play would have resumed at 11.25 pm, but it started again. Thanks to the playing conditions and the great drainage at Chinnaswamy, the match started at 12.55 am, a whopping three hours and twenty minutes after the match.
KKR stutter
Despite the fact that they were chasing a truncated 48 in just six overs, KKR had an anxiety attack. They lost Chris Lynn and Yusuf Pathan in the first over and Robin Uthappa in the second. David Warner sniffed a chance.
Gambhir knocks Hyderabad out
But captain Gautam Gambhir extinguished all the hope. He went on the offensive, refused to get bogged down.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 128/7 in 20 overs (David Warner 37, Kane Williamson 24; Nathan Coulter-Nile 3/20, Umesh Yadav 2/21) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 48/3 in 5.1 overs (DLS) (Gautam Gambhir 32, Chris Lynn 6, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1/11, Chris Jordan 1/9) by seven wickets.