The mediocre scoring match between KKR and SRH, on September 26th at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, was almost a one-sided match. With the heroics of Shubhman Gill, Pat Cummins, etc. KKR dominated throughout the match and grabbed a comfortable 7 wicket victory over SRH. Here’s a brief of what happened in the match
PITCH CONDITION
Ian Bishop and JP Duminy reckon there is more of a pronounced green grass covering but there hasn’t been a lot of swing with the new ball, it will be interesting to see how it goes. Bishop said the only advantage down the ground is that the wind will push the ball when you hit it. Overall it was a beautiful surface.
TOSS
Sunrisers headed off with a slight good start by winning the TOSS. They elected to bat first.
PLAYING XI
SRH:
Jonny Bairstow (WK), David Warner (C), Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Mohammad Nabi, Wriddhiman Saha, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan
KKR:
Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Dinesh Karthik (C/WK), Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Varun CV, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti
1st Inning
Skipper DAVID WARNER and the mighty JHONNY BAIRSTOW opened the inning for SRH. They started off with a slow start. Pat Cummins got the 1st breakthrough for KKR by knocking over the destructive Jhonny Bairstow for 5 (10) at the end of 4th over, leaving SRH 24-1 over the scoreboard. Manish Pandey came one down. Pandey and Warner then spent some time together in the pitch, smashing some boundaries took Sunrisers to 59-1 at the end of 9th over. At the 1st ball of 10th over David Warner headed off to the dugout by handing over a caught and ball for Chakraborty, and Wriddhiman Saha came 2 down. Both Saha and Pandey then built some stable partnership for SRH but at a fairly slow rate with SRH crossing the 2 digit mark on scorecard around the 16th over. Pandey competed for his well-played half-century in the 17th over. Russell got the 3rd breakthrough for KKR at the 3rd ball of the 3rd last over, sending off the stable Manish Pandey 51(38)leaving SRH on 121-3. Mohammad Nabi then came on the crease. SRH continued its slow pace during the death overs. Saha and Nabi hit some boundaries during death overs carrying SRH to 133-3 at the end of 19th over. Saha got runout 30(31) in the last over giving a break to his run a ball inning with Abishek Sharma coming on the pitch. SRH ended their innings for 142-4.
KKR needed 143 runs of 120 balls at a required run rate of 7.15 RPO
2nd Inning
Young talent SHUBHMAN GILL and hard-hitting SUNIL NARINE opened the innings for KKR. KKR lost their 1st wicket early in the form of Sunil Narine 0(2) at the 8th ball of 2nd inning with Nitish Rana coming for 1 down. Rana and Gill showed some glorious strokes and during the powerplay and carrying KKR to their 50 before Natrajan got the 2nd breakthrough for KKR at 43 in the 5th over in form of Nitish Rana 26(13) with the skipper Dinesh Kartik coming for 2 down. Kartik departed early without opening his account and lost his wicket to Rashid leaving KKR To 53-3 at 6.2 overs. Then came the experienced Eoin Morgan on the pitch. From this point, Gill and Morgan’s show began. They partnered throughout the remaining match amassing 92 runs together and took the game away from the hands of SRH. Gill completed his excellent half-century in the middle. Both carried KKR to a comfortable win by 7 wickets and 12 balls to spare.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Shubhman Gill won the man of the match award for his excellent inning of 70 off 62 balls which had a crucial role for KKR’s win.
