Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad on a turning Eden Gardens pitch to go third in the IPL, largely thanks to an outstanding display of controlled spin bowling.
The defending champions made a flying start, Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir putting on 57 for the opening wicket as the Sunrisers’ seamers all struggled to find the right line and offered up easy boundaries. Their stand came to and end when David Warner, the Sunrisers captain, brought on the spinners, who slowed the run rate, with Karn Sharma removing both openers – Uthappa going to a brilliant low catch at cover by Warner.
Unusually, both spinners – Karn and Bipul Sharma – bowled through in tandem, and the tactic proved a useful one as wickets continued to fall. Andre Russell was culpable in throwing his away as he presented Morgan with a second boundary catch, Manish Pandey was run out and Ryan ten Doeschate went lbw to the medium pace of Moises Henriques.
Despite the platform laid by their most successful power play of the season, the Knight Riders never managed to regain that fluency as two more wickets went down in the antepenultimate over as they slipped from 81 for one to 145 for seven. They were indebted to Yusuf Pathan and his 19-ball 30, including 13 from the final over, to lift them to what proved to be a winning total on a spinning pitch.
Still, it was seam that did for the Sunrisers’ top order in the first over of the chase, as Umesh Yadav swung a full delivery from leg to rip Warner’s off-stump out the ground, then three balls later brought one back in to the right-handed Naman Ojha at pace to bowl him.
After an explosive start, Gambhir brought his spinners into the attack on a turning pitch and, with the required run rate spiralling, Brad Hogg soon removed Shikar Dhawan before Eoin Morgan, after scratching around like a man locked in a tent filled with mosquitos for five, was mercifully run out. Hanuma Vihari was then stumped and Bipul run out in the 12th over to in effect confirm the result.
