Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs to register their third win of the tournament and go top on the table.
Chasing 173, the defending champions went off to a good start with their openers – David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan- adding 46 runs for the first wicket.
But the match turned on its head soon when the spinner began operating in tandem. With the pitch providing ample turn, the spinners bowled a tight line, not allowing the batsmen to free their arms. The pressure of increasing the run-rate finally got the better of Warner, as he perished while trying to hit a Kuldeep Yadav’s delivery for a boundary to leave his team reeling at 59 for two.
Six runs later, the in-form Moises Henriques also departed after offering an easy return catch to Chris Woakes. A 16-ball 26 run knock by Yuvraj Singh revived Sunrisers hope for a while but his departure, when the score was 112 dented their hopes.
Later, Bipul Sharma hit a flurry of boundaries towards the end but losing wickets at regular interval never allowed the visitors to get the impetus to chase down the total, as they were eventually restricted to 155 for six.
Earlier, Robin Uthappa scored a 38-ball 68 to guide Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 172 for six. The two-time Indian Premier League were in a spot of bother after they were reduced to 40 for two in the sixth over before being rescued by a 77-run partnership between Uthappa and Manish Pandey.
Uthappa departed after scoring his first fifty of the tournament while Pandey returned to the hut following a 46-run knock
Here is how Twitter reacted to the match:
Decent chase by Hy'bad. But Kolkata's attack superb. Depth & variety. Narine & Kuldeep especially will be problematic for any team at Eden
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/AllTimeBakchod/status/853237494107734016
Conceding less than 20 in 4 overs in a T20 games is like scoring 50 off 20 balls.
Narine 4-0-18-1 ? #KKRvSRH— Abhijeet ♞ (@TheYorkerBall) April 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/yk_deepak/status/853225128922161152
When Shikhar Dhawan found someone tweeting about his replacement in Indian team. pic.twitter.com/eww67MeLsB
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) April 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/AllTimeBakchod/status/853234246470832129
Only 1 wicket lost in 9 overs but Hyderabad caught in spin web by Narine, Kuldeep Yadav & Pathan. Testing time for Warner & Co
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/thephukdi/status/853185189199187969
https://twitter.com/AllTimeBakchod/status/853218978340253696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fadmin.sportzwiki.com%2Fcricket%2Fipl-2017-twitter-reacts-as-lucky-robin-uthappa-guide-kolkata-knight-riders-to-challenging-total%2F
*Uthappa hits a six*
Ravi Shastri- it's a biggie by Manish Pandey !!
Isa guha – it was Uthappa.
R- Sorry, was looking at you.
— Punk (@punk_hardik) April 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/chaitu_40/status/853213359239548928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fadmin.sportzwiki.com%2Fcricket%2Fipl-2017-twitter-reacts-as-lucky-robin-uthappa-guide-kolkata-knight-riders-to-challenging-total%2F
https://twitter.com/SirJaddeja/status/853214074460450816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fadmin.sportzwiki.com%2Fcricket%2Fipl-2017-twitter-reacts-as-lucky-robin-uthappa-guide-kolkata-knight-riders-to-challenging-total%2F
Rashid Khan's IPL wickets:
Mandeep Singh
Travis Head
Brendon McCullum
Aaron Finch
Suresh Raina
Rohit Sharma
Gautam Gambhir— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) April 15, 2017
The Indian umpires are so average, so unlike-international standards. @BCCI must take regular offenders off the @IPL list #KKRvSRH
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) April 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/CricketDevotee/status/853203869857452033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fadmin.sportzwiki.com%2Fcricket%2Fipl-2017-twitter-reacts-as-lucky-robin-uthappa-guide-kolkata-knight-riders-to-challenging-total%2F