Kolkata Knight Riders keep playoff hopes alive with win over SRH

Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to end their five-match winning streak. Strong performances by Rahane and Raghuvanshi ensured an easy chase, while SRH’s batting collapse and poor bowling proved costly at a crucial stage

Hyderabad: A complete all-round performance by Kolkata Knight Riders ended the five-match winning streak of Sunrisers Hyderabad as the former notched up a convincing seven-wicket win to keep its hopes alive in the IPL at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.

Chasing 166, KKR was never really in trouble as it was off to a flier, with Ajinkya Rahane and Impact Sub Finn Allen batting with great freedom.

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SRH captain and fast bowler Pat Cummins was hit for 27 runs in the fourth over, with Allen picking two fours and two sixes, but he was relieved to see Allen hit a harmless ball on the leg stump straight to the fielder in the deep in the same over.

Then, the gifted Angkrish Raghuvanshi showed his class in the company of his captain Rahane and the two strung together a match-winning second wicket partnership of 84 runs off 66 balls to the dismay of the near-capacity crowd. And this was the third consecutive win for KKR.

Both Rahane (43, 36b, 4×4, 1×6) and Raghuvanshi (59, 47b, 5×4, 2×6), who departed in quick succession close to the target, played the bowling on merit to guide the team home (169/3 in 18.2 overs).

It was a chase which put to test the depth, variety and skills of the SRH bowling attack and it apparently failed to raise the bar. In a way, a result for serious introspection as the home team heads into the business end of the season.

Travis Head shines

Earlier, a typically belligerent knock by opener Travis Head (61, 28b, 9×4, 3×6) ensured the home team, put in to bat, scored a healthy 107 for two at the halfway stage.

Even as his explosive partner Abhishek Sharma (15) failed to get going, Head was in his elements, hitting four fours in pacer Vaibhav Arora’s first over and then hitting veteran spinner Sunil Narine for a six and a four.

At the other end, Ishan Kishan started off in style with an extravagant pull off pacer Kartik Tyagi into the stands and then showing his deft touch play, steering one to the third-man fence.

Head continued to bat in his own zone, lofting mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy over long-on for a six to reach his 50 off just 22 balls. But Varun had the last laugh soon, inducing a shot as the batter holed out to the deep in the ninth over (105/2).

Then, SRH suffered a huge blow with pacer Cameron Green sending back the dangerous-looking Heinrich Klaasen (11), thanks to a sensational catch by Rovman Powell at deep mid-wicket in the 11th over (117/3).

Varun bowled an impressive second spell of 2-0-7-2, removing Ravichandran Smaran (4) and Aniket Verma in quick succession to make it 135/5 in 13.4 overs.

Later, it was the turn of Narine, who claimed his 200th IPL wicket, to strike a double blow dismissing Salil Arora (2) and the well-set Ishan Kishan (42, 29b, 4×4, 2×6) in the 16th over to put SRH in serious trouble (148/7).

SRH was eventually bowled out for 165 in 18.6 overs and the absence of an unwell Nitish Kumar Reddy was clearly felt as it scored only 26 runs in the last four overs, losing five wickets in the face of a disciplined bowling effort.