A 26 over match lasting technically for 2 day! You must be thinking that it is a joke if you lost hope dozed off to sleep last night thinking that the match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders will get washed off. After the mighty SHR batting line up managed to secure a paltry 128 from their 20 overs, the skies opened up and at one point of time it looked as if the match might get abandoned which will mean that SHR will move ahead in the tournament to face Mumbai Indians in the next qualifier without even defending their total.
Thanks to the ground staff and the excellent drainage system of the ground, the eliminator between KKR and defending champion SHR resumed at 55 minutes past midnight where KKR was given a target of 48 runs to chase from 6 overs which included two overs of power play. What looked a one sided match, as the batting team only required to score 48 from 36 balls with 10 wickets in hand, turned extremely exciting when KKR lost 2 wickets in the very first over. The explosive, Chris Lynn who smacked Bhuvaneshwar Kumar for a six over point, was the first to depart as he was caught behind the wicket. The drama intensified when Yousuf Pathan was run out the very next ball.
With the fall of the other opener, Robin Uthappa, at the score of 12, it seemed for a moment that the Knights have pressed the panic button but the hopes of the Sunrisers got drenched as KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir steadied the ship and guided his team to an easy victory along with Ishant Jaggi. The duo switched a 36 runs unbeaten partnership with Gambhir scoring 32 of just 19 deliveries which included 2 4s and 2 6s.
Although it might seem unfair that the franchise from Hyderabad only had 48 to defend, the fact of the matter is SRH lost the plot when they failed to put up a respectable target on the board when they were put into bat after KKR won the toss. On a pitch that was slow and low, the RH captain David Warner felt that his team fell short by 30 runs.
KKR gained the upper hand in the first half of the match owing to a superb display of aggressive and discipline bowling. The pace trio of Coulter-Nile, Boult and Yadaav along with the spin duo of Narine and Chawal never allowed the SRH batters to free their arms. The KKR bowlers, whom the captain credited for the victory, allowed on 31 runs in the first 6 overs of the SHR batting.
Although Warner and Williamson tried to up the ante, the former was send back to the hut after the leggie Piyush Chawal disturbed his woodwork while the latter fell prey to Nathan Coulter-Nile who won the man of the match award for picking up 3 wickets by considering just 20 runs from his quota of 4 overs.
Umesh Yadaav got rewarded with 2 wickets while Trent Boult managed to get one. Although Sunil Narine was economical, he remained wicket-less.
After knocking out SRH from the hunt of the title, a confident KKR will be up against Mumbai Indians tomorrow in the second qualifier.
