IPL 2017: Clinical KKR beat Sunrisers by 7 wickets to enter Qualifier 2

Kolkata Knight Riders captain and batsman Gautam Gambhir L hugs his team mate Ishank Jaggi R after their victory in the 2017 Indian Premier League IPL Twenty20 cricket eliminator match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders at The M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on May 18 2017PicAFPTwotime champions Kolkata Knight Riders defeated title holders Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets via DuckworthLewis method in a raintruncated Indian Premier League Eliminator to enter the Qualifier 2 of the tournament here todayOpting to bowl first KKR produced a disciplined bowling and fielding effort to first restrict Sunrisers to a modest 128 for seven and then overwhelmed the revised target of 48 in six overs with consummate easeMush against Sunrisers wish the rain subsided and the target was revised to 48 off six overs after persistent drizzle soon after Sunrisers innings stopped the proceedings for more than three hoursChasing the target Chris Lynn got KKR off to a quick start smashing Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a six But two quick wickets in successive balls changed the complexion of the gameLynn edged Bhuvneshwars next delivery on to Naman Ojha behind the stumps and then a ball later new man in Yusuf Pathan was run out by the bowlerRobin Uthappa too didnt last long as he gave simple catch to Shikhar Dhawan at squareleg off Chris Jordan in the second over But thereafter skipper Gautam Gambhir 32 not out took the onus on himself to guide his side home in the company of Ishant Jaggi 5 not out KKR overwhelmed the target with four balls to spare For Sunrisers Jordan 19 and Bhuvneshwar 111 picked up a wicket eachKKR will now take on Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 here on FridayEarlier KKR produced a disciplined bowling and fielding effort to restrict Sunrisers to a modest 128 for seven Returning to the side after an injury layoff NathanCoulterNile 320 impressed with the ball He was ably supported by Umesh Yadav 221Sent into bat it was struggle for Sunrsiers from the onset as skipper David Warner 37 and Shikhar Dhawan 11 found the going tough against the KKR bowling attack on a slowish and difficult M Chinnaswmay pitchThe slow scoring rate finally took a toll on Sunrisers as Dhawan perished in the second delivery of the fifth overDhawan slashed at a good length delivery of Umesh only managing to balloon it to Robin Uthappa behind the stumps with the Sunrisers scoreboard reading 25 for one With the boundaries hard to come by Warner finally broke the shackles in the ninth over clobbering Piyush Chawlas 127 short delivery over midwicket boundary for a maximumNew man in Kane Williamson 24 showed his class as he smacked CoulterNile for a boundary and a huge six off consecutive balls to pick up 13 runs of the 10th overAt the halfway stage Sunrisers were 61 for one With time Warner grew in confidence and his big hitting skills came to the fore He didnt spare a single loose balland clobbered a marginally short delivery from Sunil Narine way over the long on boundaryBut just when the partnership between Warner and Williamson was looking dangerous twin blows in consecutive overs rattled Sunrisers inningsFirst Williamson departed caught at extra cover by Suryakumar Yadav off CoulterNile while trying to lift the ball over the infield and then in the next over dangerous Warner was cleaned up by ChawlaThe duo stitched 50 runs for the second wicket off 44 balls ballsYuvraj Singh 9 and young Vijay Shankar 22 shared quick 24 runs of three overs for the fourth wicket before the former fell caught by Chawla at deep backward squareleg off Umesh while trying to up the anteCoulterNile then struck twice in the 19th over first removing Shankar and then Chris Jordan to make matters worse for SunrisersNaman Ojha made a runaball 16 before perishing in the final delivery of the innings