Shubman Gill made the stand-out effort with the bat after an all-round bowling display as KKR dominated SRH to earn themselves two very crucial points in the race for the last playoffs spot in Indian Premier League 2021.
Tim Southee (2/26) and Shivam Mavi (2/29) lent the first punches for KKR, dismissing both SRH’s openers Wriddhiman Saha (0) and Jason Roy (10) early. The two quicks returned to the attack later on and added a scalp each to their tally. Those initial couple of blows helped KKR get a headstart in the proceedings, which their spinners exploited brilliantly thereafter.
KKR’s spin trio of Varun Chakravarthy (2/26), Sunil Narine (0/12) and comeback man Shakib Al Hasan (1/20) gave away only 58 runs off their 12 overs, which, even on a surface to their liking, was an outstanding effort.
Chakravarthy continued his rich vein of form, retaining his mysterious nature to maintain the wood over batters while Narine simply looked to pile on the misery for SRH with a flurry of dot balls. Shakib, on his part, showed what an asset he is when at his best and auditioned for a regular place in the side as the third spinner on tiring UAE tracks.
For SRH, on a day when KKR spinners sucked the oxygen out of their innings, the last thing they would’ve wanted is to lose their skipper and most skilful batter against spin, Kane Williamson, to a run-out. Williamson had batted well for 26 after the early loss of Saha and Roy.
But just when the Kiwi great was setting himself up for something substantial, he made a rare misjudgment of a run. Tapping Shakib on the leg-side, Williamson called young Priyam Garg for a single, but was found short at the other end when Shakib nailed a direct hit on the move.
From there on it was all KKR and it required a couple of fighting but inadequate twenties from Garg (21) and Abdul Samad (25) for SRH to breach the 110-mark.
In the run-chase, Gill showed off his class at the top, scoring a measured and skillful 57 off 51 to steer his team towards the winning post. This was Gill’s first half-century of the season and a strong example of the form that the prodigious talent has shown in this UAE leg after an insipid first half. Initially taking his time, Gill upped the gear after the 10th over and ended with 10 fours.
Nitish Rana (25) and Dinesh Karthik (18*) also batted well, making sure SRH had no opening to put KKR under pressure. Karthik took his team past the finish line along with skipper Eoin Morgan (2*) with two balls left in the game.
With hardly any runs to play with, SRH bowlers were always fighting a lost cause. Jason Holder picked up two for 32, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/20), Rashid Khan (1/23), and even debutant pacer Umran Malik (0/27) bowled tightly but it was a matter of when and not if as far an SRH loss is concerned.
Brief scores
Sunrisers Hyderabad 115/8 in 20 overs (Williamson 26, Samad 25; Chakravarthy 2/26, Southee 2/26) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 119/4 in 19.4 overs (Gill 57, Rana 25; Holder 2/32, Khan 1/23) by 6 wickets
