New delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders’ Vaibhav Arora and Varun Chakravarthy claimed six wickets among themselves and Venkatesh Iyer hit an enthralling 60 as Sunrisers Hyderabad faced a meltdown losing by whopping 80 runs with 20 balls to spare.
Set to chase KKR’s 200/6 wickets, SRH folded up for 120 in 16.4 overs making it three losses in a row for the visitors. For KKR, it would be a huge boost ahead of their home game against LSG.
But the highlight of the day was the duo Arora and Chakravarthy who broke the spine of SRH and dismissed any chances of a fightback. Arora returned with figures of 3/29 and Varun 3/22, while Iyer returned to form in style contributing an invaluable 60.
Cummins won the toss and opted to bowl. KKR brought in Moeen Ali in place of Spencer
Johnson and SRH introduced Kamindu Mendis in place of Travis Head. KKR slipped into their regular rut losing Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine early. Skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi stemmed the rot as KKR reached 84/2 at the halfway mark.
Rahane, who by now had hit four sixes and a boundary, was looking solid. But again, a moment of madness saw him try a reverse sweep and give a dolly to Heinrich Klassen off Zeeshan Ansari for 38, bringing an end to the 81-run partnership for the third wicket with Angkrish, who got a lucky break being dropped by Nitish Reddy off Simarjeet Singh at 43. He reached 50 off
30 balls with KKR on 105/3 in 12.1 overs. But departed three balls later to Mendis after an innings studded with five boundaries and two sixes.
KKR has boasted of one of the finest line-ups of finishers and it was on show today. Rinku Singh and Iyer returned to form against SRH and the duo smashed 78 runs of just 30 balls in a run fest as KKR reached the 200-run mark at the end of the innings.
Rinku upped the ante from the 15th over. Three boundaries off a Harshal Patel over and a four and a six of Simarjeet in the very next set the tempo. Rinku played a little unbeaten gem of 32 off just 17 balls. Iyer, meanwhile, lived up to his price tag threading the packed offside field for boundaries. He showed his class as he got Cummins for three straight boundaries and a six and then clobbered Harshal for a six and four in the first two balls of the 20th over. The next ball he sent high into the night sky for Aniket Verma to complete a fine catch to send him back for 60 off just 29 balls and a strike-rate over 200.
SRH disastrously began their innings with Impact Sub Arora dismissing SRH Impact
Sub Travis Head to a superbly collected tumbling catch from a back-peddling Harshit Rana in the first over. Next over, it was Rana’s turn to celebrate as he sent Abhishek Sharma back to pavilion with a fine catch at first slip of a thick edge. Ishan Kishan was the next to go and Arora the catalyst to a low diving catch from Rahane. With the scoreboard reading 9/3 at the end ofthe third over things looked grim.
Mendis and Reddy came together only to see the latter hit a half-volley from Andre Russell to long on, which fell straight into Narine’s safe hands. 51/4 after 7 overs and 201 looked like a decent target for the first time in the match. KKR kept on chipping at the wickets with Narine and Chakravarthy getting into their groove.
Mendis, who looked good during the stay, was gone for 27 off 20 balls. Aniket Verma (6) then fell to Chakravarthy’s guile to make it 80/6 at the end of 11th over. Klassen (33) threatened to take the challenge to KKR, but cunning captaincy from Rahane saw Arora ret urn to claim the prized scalp. Chakravarthy came for his last over and took two wickets – of Cummins and Simarjeet – in his first two balls. SRH’s innings ultimately folded for 120 off 16.4 overs