IPL 2017: Gautam Gambhir calls SRH 'champions' after KKR 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 2017PicAFPKolkata Knight Riders KKR captain Gautam Gambhir led from the front to knock defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad out of the Indian Premier League IPL with a sevenwicket win and made to Qualifier 2 in a raininterrupted eliminator clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on ThursdayKKR will take on Mumbai Indians on Friday at the same venueChasing 48 to win in six overs after rain and wet outfield ate up a large chunk of playing time forcing DuckworthLewis method to come into play Gambhir steadied the ship after KKR were 123 at one stage with an unbeaten 19ball 32Ishank Jaggi playing his first match was not out on fiveAt the start Chris Lynn was on the money right away smacking Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a six in the first ball he facedBut the second ball saw the destructive Australian get out after replays showed Lynn had edged to wicketkeeper Naman Ojha off a Bhuveshwar nearyorkerYusuf Pathan promoted up the order to score at a brisk pace lasted just one delivery before he was run out Robin Uthappa did not last long too holing out to Shikhar Dhawan at deep mid wicket off Chris Jordans bowlingEarlier KKR rode on a superlative show by their bowlers to restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to 1287 in 20 oversReturning to the side after an injury layoff Nathan CoulterNile 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 oneWith 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 oneWith time Warner grew in confidence and his big hitting skills came to the fore He didnt spare a single loose ball and 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 inningsKKRs skipper Gautam Gambhir took to Twitter to congratulate his opponents Sunrisers Hyderabad for their effort and also calls them champions4 loses out of 5 befor last night v SunRisersseems KKRiders scriptwriter was having a cartridgerefill Hope dis one lasts till May 21stmdash Gautam Gambhir GautamGambhir May 18 2017Satisfying win but my heart goes out 2 SunRiserstough 2 fathom such a loss U r a champion side VVSLaxman281 YUVSTRONG12 davidwarner31mdash Gautam Gambhir GautamGambhir May 18 2017Big thanks to KSCA for revamping their drainage system n flushing KKRiders out of troubled waterswell literally ipl BCCImdash Gautam Gambhir GautamGambhir May 18 2017