IPL 10, Match 37, Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders: Match Review

Sunrisers Hyderabad had a chance to further gain control over their current position and by doing so they would have also put a halt over the current run of Kolkata Knight Riders who are doing extremely well. Knight Riders had won their last three games coming into this one and were extremely high on confidence.

The game started well for the visitors as they put the home team into bat first. They were soon kicking themselves for doing so because a certain David Warner was taking their bowlers apart bit by bit. Kolkata has a very decent bowling unit but the Australian vice-captain was in a different league tonight. He was smashing the ball so well that no bowler in the world could have stopped him.

At the end of the first powerplay, the score of Hyderabad was 79. They were going at a rate of 13 runs per over and there was no respect shown to the bowlers by David Warner. He had scored 62 of those 79 runs. He brought up his fifty only in 20 deliveries. It was the joint fastest by a SRH player in the IPL. Even young Kuldeep Yadav was not spared today as he was hit for plenty.

Warner did not stop after the restrictions were lifted. You can place the field for all kinds of shots but Warner was hitting everything out of the park today. Not just the conventional shots but also the famous switch hit, he used it to great effect against the spinners. He continued to attack as he reached his century in just 43 deliveries. Everyone at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium was stunned for good as they were seeing something special today. Even Gayle’s 175 looked in danger as it was just 11th over when Warner reached his century.

He eventually departed for a 59-ball 126 hitting 10 boundaries and 8 maximums. This inning was one of the best IPL has witnessed in a while. His partner Shikhar Dhawan was just watching the ball sail into the stands from the other end as he scored just 29 runs of the 139 run partnership. David Warner departed in the 17th over as he had done the damage already.

Kane Williamson scored a handy forty to make sure Sunrisers reach a score of 209 and KKR had a huge total to chase. The KKR bowlers had a bad day at the office and hence the batsmen had their work cut out. The Sunrisers camp knew the job was half done yet, as the visitors had many batters who were in excellent touch.

However, the captain and the opener Narine were sent back within the first 3 overs. Sunrisers made sure they did not let KKR get off to a good start and they had to build their way back into the game. Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa thought of counter attacking and just when they were starting to look good, rain played spoilsport.

The game was delayed and Kolkata desperately wanted to get back on the field as they were 16 runs behind as per the D/L method. The rain stopped after 25 minutes and the play was resumed. Uthappa started off on a positive note after the delay and brought up another half-century; his 3rd in a row. He lost Manish Pandey but kept on going but couldn’t last long as he was caught at long-off by David Warner.

The game slipped away from KKR’s grasp pretty quickly thereafter as they kept on losing wickets and were running out of overs. They eventually lost the game by 48 runs, scoring only 161 in their 20 overs. The pacers, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Siraj and Siddharth Kaul picked up 2 wickets each and Rashid Khan snatched one for himself.

This win meant that Hyderabad were in touching distance of the top two spot. This special inning from Warner will go down in the history books of the Indian Premier League as the defending champions are defending their title extremely well. Another win for Warner and co means they strengthened their position at number 3 place.

Brief Scores –

SRH vs KKR – SRH won by 48 runs.

SRH – 209/3 20 Overs (Warner 126, Williamson 40, Woakes 1/46)

KKR – 161/7 20 Overs (Uthappa 53, Kumar 2/29, Siraj 2/26)

Check out full scorecard here

Check out Points table here