Knight Riders defend modest target to send defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad crashing to 18-run defeat at Eden Gardens
Robin Uthappa
Robin Uthappa
Kolkata: Sunrisers Hyderabad fell 18 runs short as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)âu00c2u0080u00c2u0088defended a modest target to continue their happy homecoming in IPL-10. Restricted to 172 for six in their second match at the Eden Gardens, KKR stopped the defending champions at 155 for six.
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Sunil Narine, failing to repeat Thursday's stellar show with the bat, came back to lead a fine bowling performance by the Knights.
David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan, both let off early in their innings, set up the platform with an opening partnership that yielded 46 off 40 deliveries but failed to build on their starts.
Yuvi flatteres to deceive
Yuvraj Singh then threatened to take the match away with some characteristic hitting but it didn't last long. Once he left, caught in the deep, there was not much firepower left to take the defending champions home.
Sent in to bat, KKR had persisted with the ploy of sending Sunil Narine to open the innings but it didn't work this time. Shorn of the sheen of surprise and pitted against an attack that had more quality than the one thrown at him by Kings XI a couple of nights ago, the West Indian looked ill at ease before Bhuvneshwar Kumar slipped a swinging yorker under his bat.
Six runs from nine deliveries was a far cry from the 37 off 18 he snatched off Kings XI on Thursday. With Kumar and Ashish Nehra, oozing guile in their stifling acts, made sure the others didn't get away as well. Gautam Gambhir, who already has a couple of unbeaten 70-plus scores under the belt, fell trying to break the shackles and it was left to Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey to put the runs on the board. The two added 77 in 52 balls, Uthappa put a strong case for his return to an openers' slot with an aggressive innings that had four sixes and five boundaries. Pandey had a couple of sixes and three fours.
Robin rocks
Robin Uthappa was "happy" with his new position and said: "If you lose an early wicket you need someone with experience to handle the pressure and ensure you don't lose another." He conceded that KKR were probably a trifle short on the total, and praised the bowlers for defending what they had on the board. If Sunrisers pegged things back in power-play and death overs, KKR strangled their opponents in the middle-overs with their slow bowlers.
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