ISLAMABAD
\nSYNOPSIS: It was yet another game where Sunrisers Hyderabad lost the plot with the bat and gifted Kolkata Knight Riders a crucial win
\nAn inspired bowling performance from Varun Chakravarthy helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday. Defending nine runs in the final over, the mystery spinner conceded only three runs and took the wicket of Abdul Samad as Kolkata posted their fourth win of the season to stay alive in the tournament.
\nChasing 173 for win, Hyderabad never really looked in control of the chase as they kept gifting wickets away and Varun\u2019s spell \u2014 where he bowled three of his four overs at the death, and conceded only 12 runs swung the game in Kolkata\u2019s favour.
\nWith only four matches left, every game is a virtually a knockout for Kolkata and defending a moderate total, the seamers delivered up front.
\nPlaying only his second IPL game, Harshit Rana showed good control with the new ball and provided the early breakthrough by removing Mayank Agarwal. Shardul Thakur, who is returning after an injury, accounted for Abhishek Shara in his first over and later on with Hyderabad cruising in the chase, picked the wicket of Heinrich Klaasen.
\nThe wicket of Klaasen was the first visible change of tide as Kolkata found an opening they desperately sought.
\nWhile Vaibhav Arora also chipped in with the wickets of Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen, Kolkata\u2019s spinners, especially Sunil Narine had another disappointing wicket as he went wicket-less.
\nWith Kolkata preferring to go with Anukul Roy as an Impact Player to provide depth in the batting department, Suyash Sharma missed out. Although the left-arm spinner started well by dismissing Harry Brook, he was taken apart by Klaasen in his third over. While Narine continued to struggle, Varun had another memorable outing.
\nMarkram anchors and Klassens blitz
\nAfter a nervous start to the chase, skipper Markram and Klaassen\u2019s 71-run partnership pulled the Orange Army back into the game. Whilst Klaasen took the attacking route, Makram looked to shepherd the innings.
\nHowever, the rest of the batting line-up could not deliver much either side of their partnership.
\nAgarwal started with a couple of boundaries and six, but his stay was short-lived and his partner Abhishek too followed him soon.
\nHaving shuffled their opening pair regularly through the season, Hyderabad continued to pay the price as the middle-order was entrusted with the job to bail them out. Rahul Tripathi provided some much needed momentum in their chase as he quickly got off the blocks scoring 20 runs off eight deliveries.
\nHowever, an attempted scoop of Andre Russell\u2019s over, ended his stay. Brook, who scored an outstanding century when the two teams met earlier at the Eden Gardens, picked up his second successive zero as his struggle on spin-friendly pitches continued.
\nEarlier, winning the toss Nitish Rana opted to bat first. On a decent batting surface, Kolkata once again got off to a bad start.
\nHaving already tried six different pair so far, Kolkata opened with Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. But even this combination failed to click as the latter departed in the second over delivered by Jansen.
\nEven Venkatesh Iyer lasted only four deliveries as Jansen started with two wickets in his first over. And by the time Roy departed in the fifth over, it was once again down to Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh to bail them out.
\nThe 62-run partnership between the skipper and Rinku brought Kolkata back into the game as the duo mixed caution with aggression.
\nAnd once Rana was dismissed in the 12th over with Kolkata placed at 96\/4, Russell started off on a confident note as he smashed a six over covers using his brute power.
\nHowever, even his stay turned into a brief one as leg-spinner Mayank Markande tossed one well outside the off-stump and the Jamaican, who was beaten in the flight comfortably, still went for an ugly hoick, only for T Natarajan to catch it a short third-man. At that moment, it seemed as if Hyderabad had taken full control of the game as the decibel levels were deafening.
\nThough their bowling and batting efforts were bits and pieces on Thursday evening, their fielding was electric. Markram took a sublime catch running almost till long-on off his own bowling to remove Rana. Later in the innings, Samad took another stunning catch to dismiss Rinku. Running forward from the mid-wicket fence, he dived forward to pluck the ball inches from the ground. Apart from these two catching efforts, their ground fielding through the course of the evening was top-notch as they saved quite a few runs.
\nHaving made all the hard work with the ball and even Markram proving to be shrewd with his bowling changes, this was a contest that Hyderabad should have closed out with the bat. However, the constant shuffling in the batting order means their batters seem to be low on confidence at a crucial juncture of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD SYNOPSIS: It was yet another game where Sunrisers Hyderabad lost the plot with the bat and gifted Kolkata Knight Riders a crucial win An inspired bowling performance from Varun Chakravarthy helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday. Defending nine runs in the final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-329651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n