Hyderabad: Jonny Bairstow (80 n o, 43b, 7×4, 4×6) and David Warner (67, 38b, 3×4, 5×6) continued their stellar run at the top as they powered Sunrisers Hyderbad (SRH) to a nine-wicket win over struggling Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an IPL encounter here Sunday.
The openers looked in command as the 160-run target was achieved in 15 overs largely due to their 131-run stand between Warner and Bairstow – their fourth century opening partnership in the tournament. This was KKR’s fifth successive loss in the tournament.
KKR paid for their sloppy fielding and ended up paying heavily for their mistakes. Bairstow was dropped twice, once on five by KC Cariappa off debutant Prithviraj’s delivery in the second over and then again on 58 by Piyush Chawla off Sunil Narine.
The troika of spinners were the reason for KKR’s downfall as Narine (0/34), Cariappa (0/34) and Chawla (0/38) gave away 106 runs in nine overs.
Prithviraj (1/29) got the only breakthrough for KKR dismissing the threatening Australian but it was a little too late as the hosts needed just 29 runs off 40 balls.
Earlier, young left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed (3/33) grabbed three wickets in an impressive spell removing Narine (25), Shubman Gill (three) and Chris Lynn (51) to restrict KKR to 159/8.
Senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/35) bowled well while leg-spinner Rashid Khan (1/23) and seamer Sandeep Sharma (1/37) took a wicket apiece with the SRH’s bowlers making life difficult for the KKR batsmen.
For KKR, Lynn was the top-scored with Rinku Singh (30) being the other notable contributer.
Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 159/8 (Chris Lynn 51; Khaleel Ahmed 3/33) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 161/1 (Jonny Bairstow 80 n o, David Warner 67) by nine wickets.