KKR emerged victoriously in their do-or-die game, against SRH. Kolkata Knight Riders defeated the orange army by 6 wickets with 2 balls left at the Dubai International Stadium, to gain two more points and moved a bit ahead of their contenders including Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals. They only need to win their last game to qualify for the playoffs, and considering their form in the second phase of the Indian Premier League, they hopefully will do the same.
The match
Sunrisers Hyderabad opted to bat at first. Though KKR proved their decision wrong as they were very much attacking mode in their bowling. Tim Southee who came as a replacement for Pat Cummins for KKR picked up Wriddhiman Saha in the first over. His fellow opener, Jason Roy also soon got out in a ball, bowled by Shivam Mavi giving a catch to Southee.
Captain Kane Williamson tried to recover SRH from collapsing and was playing a good knock but Shakib Al Hasan showed his excellent athleticism, and run out the SRH captain. No one could stand for long from SRH. Though with the joint efforts of Priyam Garg scoring 21 of 31 with 1 six and Abdul Samad scoring 25 of 18 with 3 sixes SRH reached 115 with the loss of 8 wickets.
Performance by KKR
Though KKR seems to be unstable at the beginning of their innings when Venkatesh Iyer and Rahul Tripathi got out in close intervals and the score in power play was not much. Though it didn’t create any pressure as the required run rate was still less and Shubham Gill was playing his role efficiently. He scored 57 of 51 balls with 10 fours.
Also with the efforts of Nitish Rana scoring 25 of33 with 3 fours and Dinesh Karthik scoring good cameo innings of 18 from 12 balls with 3 fours, KKR chased down the total in 19.4 overs. KKR is just one win away to book their ticket to the playoffs. They will next lock horns with Rajasthan Royals at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on 7th October.
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