With 38 needed off the last 5 overs, Hyderabad were clear favourites, but a confident batting line-up once again crumbled under pressure as Kolkata grabbed their fourth win of the season.
With the narrow win, Kolkata also kept their playoff hopes alive while Sunrisers slumped to their sixth defeat of the season.
Chasing a competitive 172 to win, Sunrisers got off to a brisk start, losing four wickets in the first 7 overs. captain aiden markram And Heinrich Klaasen rose to the occasion and brought the target back on track with a crucial 70-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
With nothing much to defend in the last 5 overs, the Kolkata bowlers didn’t give up and came down hard on the host batsmen, bowling tight overs and chasing down the Sunrisers. Ace spinner Varun Chakravarthy successfully defended 8 runs in the final over to seal a crucial win.
as it happened
After a useful 61-run partnership between Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh helped Kolkata post 171 for nine, their bowlers, especially Shardul Thakur (2/23) and Vaibhav Arora (2/32) Helped the two-time IPL champions. Sunrisers Hyderabad were restricted to 166 for eight in 20 overs.
The win was a tough one for KKR considering the South African duo of SRH skipper Markram (41 off 40 balls) and Klaasen (36 off 20 balls) were trying to take the match away at one stage.
Both produced innings of character but their dismissals in quick succession spelled doom for the home side as the lower order batsmen could not get going.
The KKR duo of Rana and Rinku came to the crease when the team was struggling at 49 for three at the end of the powerplay.
But by the time Rana was dismissed in the 12th over, his 31-ball 42, studded with three fours and as many sixes, had taken the team to a struggling score.
While wickets kept falling at the other end, with West Indies’ Andre Russell and Sunil Narine hardly making an impact, Rinku (46 off 35 balls) curbed his natural instincts and batted patiently to give the side a decent total to defend Played
It was another forgettable start for KKR, with opener Rahmanullah Gurbaj unable to recreate the magic of the previous game against Gujarat Titans.
The 21-year-old Afghanistan opener fell to the first ball of the second over from South African pacer Marco Jansen as he tried to flick it over mid-wicket but was a bit late and the top edge went to Harry Brook. mid-on.
Venkatesh Iyer was dismissed five balls later, becoming Johnson’s second victim as the tall pacer sent down short stuff, which the KKR batsman inconveniently tried to hook, only for wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen to take a simple catch. Tossed it in the air.
India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar held his own at the other end, conceding just 12 runs in his first two overs as the home side suffered another poor start.
The Uttar Pradesh cricketer got the big wicket of England opener Jason Roy after bowling two wides and a no ball.
Roy’s premeditated cross-bat heaves a huge edge and flies past short third man as Mayank Agarwal takes a simple catch.
SRH too got off to a poor start in their chase, with KKR pacer Harshit Rana once again exposing SRH opener Mayank Agarwal’s weakness while facing short pitched deliveries. While the opener was comfortable playing his strokes on either side of the wicket, Rana tested him with a touching delivery clocking in at 140 kmph and hitting the body at middle and leg stump.
Mayank played a defensive hook while trying to get his head out of harm’s way and lofted the ball past the keeper to take a simple catch.
Mayank’s easy dismissal put the pressure back on the fragile SRH top-order and eight runs later, SRH were reduced to 37 for 2 in the fourth over, with Abhishek Sharma also walking back to the dugout with Russell taking a catch at deep backward Proceed to pick up. Square off the Shardul delivery.
(With inputs from PTI)