IPL 2017: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs

KKR batsman Robin Uthappa plays a shot during the IPL 2017 Match against SRH at Eden Garden in Kolkata on Saturday PicPTI Kolkata Kolkata Knight Riders zoomed to the top of the Indian Premier League IPL table riding on Robin Uthappas gritty halfcentury and disciplined bowling performance to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on SaturdayAfter a shaky start being put in to bat by visiting captain David Warner Uthappa stemmed the rot with a brilliant 68 39b 5x4 4x6 to help the men in purple post 1726Sunrisers in their run chase lost wickets at regular intervals with David Warner 26 30b 4x4 0x6 and Yuvraj Singh 26 16b 2x4 2x6 topscoring for the visitors who batted very poorly to finish at 1556 in 20 overs Naman Ojha 11 and Vipul Sharma 21 were at the crease at the endThe defending champions made a steady start with Warner and Shikhar Dhawan 23 22b 4x4 0x6 stiching to together a 46run stand off 40 deliveriesBut once the spinners came to the party both the openers departed in quick succession First Dhawan holed out at long on to Yusuf Pathan who in the end conceded just just two runs in his first overSoon Warner not a great player of spin fell to the guile of chinaman Kuldeep YadavKolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir C celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman Shikhar Dhawan during the 2017 IPL Twenty20 cricket match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at The Eden Gardens Cricket Stadium in Kolkata on April 15 2017 PicAFPThe southpaw could not read him from the first ball and finally picked out Chris Woakes at long off for an easy catch less than one month after falling to the same bowler while playing for Australia against India in the fourth Test at DharamsalaMoises Henriques 13 10b 2x4 0x6 followed suit in the next over playing a uppish drive off Woakes which the England bowler latched onto in his follow through wellDeepak Hooda 13 7b 1x4 1x6 failed to shine also missing the line off Narines delivery for Uthappa to effect an easy stumpingJust when Yuvraj looked set for a matchwinning knock smacking Umesh Yadav for a six and four in consecutive balls Woakes got the back of the southpaw with a slower cutter that substitute Rishi Dhawan pouched at long onEarlier Uthappa and Manish Pandey 46 35b 3x4 2x6 stitched together a 77run stand for the third wicketOpeners Sunil Narine 6 9b 1x4 and skipper Gautam Gambhir 15 16b 2x4 0x6 departed early to leave the hosts tottering at 402Bhuvneshwar Kumar 320 bowled wonderfully well with a superb first spell that yielded 2071Coming in at No3 Uthappa used all his experience to engineer a crafty 68 39b 5x4 4x6 along with Manish Pandey who was guilty of a slow start scoring only 13 in his first 18 balls to finally score a 35ball 46 3x4 2x6 The pair stitched together a 77run third wicket partnershipNarine failed to repeat his heroics of two days ago as a fiery Bhuvneshwar uprooted his offstump with an inswinging yorker to which the legspinner had no answerIn the previous over Narine had slapped Ashish Nehra down the wicketBhuvneshwar looked dangerous in his first spell of two overs 2071 getting the ball to swing away from the right handerJust when it looked like Gambhir was about to continue from where he had left against Kings XI Punjab Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan 129 continued his purple patch with the KKR captain trying to cut a straight one that skidded off the surface and clattered into his stumpsAfter the Powerplay KKR were in a spot of bother at 402 with Pandey joining Uthappa in the middleUthappa upped the ante after the break hitting Moises Henriques and Vipul Sharma both being inducted in the first XI in place of Mustafizur Rahman and Vijay Shankar for two and a six respectivelyThe cleanhitting righthander from Karnataka brought up his halfcentury sweeping Rashid to deep midwicket where Shikhar Dhawan misjudged a difficult catch attempt Together with Pandey the duo who play their domestic cricket together tore apart SunrisersUthappa in the process became the third batsman after Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan to score 1500 runs for KKRCutting 141 finally got Uthappa out his legcutter forcing the 2007 T20 World Cup winning player to mistime his pull with Rashid running from deep midwicket to long on to take the catchBhuvneshwar halted Pandey from scoring a fifty getting the back of him as Pathan remained unbeaten at 21 off 15 with Suryakumar Yadav and Colin Grandhomme falling to Nehra and Bhuvneshwar respectivelyKKR now have six points from four outings while Sunrisers have four in their kitty from the same number of matches