Shubman Gill’s 70* and the rip-roaring effort from the bowling department help Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by a margin of 7 wickets in their first faceoff in IPL 2020.
Though it wasn’t a high-scoring chase, Kolkata Knight Riders lost the wicket of Sunil Narine (0) and followed by Nitish Rana (26) in the first five overs which did mount some pressure on the Knight Riders.
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Few deliveries later, skipper Dinesh Karthik (0) too was sent back to the pavilion, but, this is when Shubman Gill and Eoin Morgan stitched a match-winning partnership of 92* runs that made sure the result went in the favor of Men in Purple and Gold.
Gill played a matured knock of 70* (62b, 5 fours, 2 sixes) and alongside Eoin Morgan, who hammered 42* off 29 deliveries, helped chase 143 runs and register the team’s maiden win of the season.
Rashid Khan (1/25) and Mohammad Nabi (0/23) had an economical day at work. Among SRH pacers, the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/29), T Natarajan (1/27), and Khaleel Ahmed (1/28) tried their best in restricting the opposition but in vain.
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Earlier in the day, Sunrisers Hyderabad had decided to bat first, but, their decision turned out to be a mistake as they could post mere 142 runs on board.
In the final ball of the fourth over, opener Jonny Bairstow was dismissed on merely 5 runs by Pat Cummins, and the pressure was now on the duo of David Warner and Manish Pandey to get the scorecard ticking.
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Though they contributed 35 runs to the total, neither Warner nor Manish went for any fancy hitting. Warner was eventually caught and bowled on 36 (30b, 2 fours, 1 six) by mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy in the very first bowl of the tenth over.
Manish then accelerated the innings from an end and scored a half-century in the 17th over with the scorecard reading 118 at the loss of two wickets. His dismissal on 51 in the 18th over further affected the scoring ability as they could amass merely 21 runs in the remaining overs.
Wriddhiman Saha could add merely 30 runs off 31 deliveries before being run out, while Mohammad Nabi smashed a couple of fours and few singles by Abhishek Sharma helped the side post a total of 142 runs on board.
Surprisingly, this was the third-lowest IPL score by any team that lost just 4 wickets in the twenty overs of play.
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Pacer Pat Cummins bowled exceptionally well as he ended his day with figures 4-0-19-1, followed by spinner Varun Chakravarthy (1/16).
Kolkata Knight Riders are now placed at the fifth spot in the points table with a win and a loss each and an NRR of -0.767. They will play their next match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on September 30 in Dubai, while Sunrisers Hyderabad who are at the bottom of the points tally will take on Delhi Capitals on September 29 in Abu Dhabi.
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