Disciplined bowling and a sensible, classy knock from Shubman Gill (70 not out off 62 balls) helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get off the mark this IPL with a comfortable 7-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
The bowlers did a good job upfront, restricting the Sunrisers to a modest 142/4 after David Warner won the toss and opted to bat on a slow pitch. Thereafter, young Shubman anchored the KKR innings with a fine knock, complemented by Eoin Morgan’s calculative 42 not out, as the duo’s unbroken 92-run stand took the two-time champions home with 12 balls to spare.
The Knights did look a little jittery early on during their reply, struggling at 53/3 in the seventh over. Sunrisers’ trump card Rashid Khan struck in his very first over, trapping KKR captain Dinesh Karthik leg-before. Morgan too looked a tad tentative initially against Rashid, but the England white-ball captain managed to tide over the difficult phase and got into his groove.
Morgan’s presence at the other end had a calming effect on Shubman, who timed the ball really well right from the first over of KKR’s run chase. Starting off with a delightful back-foot cover-drive, he unleashed flicks, hoicks and cross-batted shots — all of them well executed and mostly effortless. He had no problems in finding the gaps.
Of course, the Sunrisers total was below par, which did make matters a tad easy for Shubman and Morgan, who strangely again had to come in after Nitish Rana and Karthik. But a win is a win is a win and the KKR camp will be mighty relieved with it after looking listless in their first match.
Much credit for this victory, however, would go to the KKR bowlers, who were right on the ball from the onset. Off-spinner Sunil Narine began the proceedings, and Pat Cummins shared the new ball with him. The Aussie speedster was a completely changed bowler with the new ball, ensuring he didn’t repeat the mistakes of the game versus Mumbai Indians.
Barely banging it short, Cummins bowled much fuller and tried to bring the ball back into the Sunrisers openers, which bore fruit when he knocked over Jonny Bairstow’s stumps. Sunrisers skipper Warner too didn’t find the going against Cummins to be too easy. Finishing with 1/19 off his four overs, Cummins conceded just two boundaries.
Leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy (coming in place of Nikhil Naik), playing just his second T20 game, did a decent job, giving away only 25 off his four overs and accounting for the prized scalp of Warner.
Even debutant Kamlesh Nagarkoti (replacing Sandeep Warrier) impressed. Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav and Andre Russell, who bowled his two overs at the death, were pretty economical too. Playing with an extra bowler worked well for KKR.
At the same time, Manish Pandey (51 off 38 balls) and Wriddhiman Saha (30 off 31 balls) couldn’t really force the pace of the Sunrisers innings during the middle overs. The match was perhaps lost then only.
