During the second Qualifier of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Kolkata, Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 13 runs to enter into the final of the tournament.
After Dinesh Karthik won the toss and put the visitors in to bat, Sunrisers Hyderabad scored 174-7 in their quota of 20 overs. Sunrisers’ start-stop innings saw them losing wickets at regular intervals. It wasn’t until Rashid Khan came out to bat at No. 8 in the 18th over and played a productive cameo. He ended up scoring 34* (10) with the help of two fours and four sixes.
With bowling figures of 4-0-29-2, Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for the Knight Riders. His act of dismissing Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson in the same over had dented the opposition drastically. Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine and Shivam Mavi picked up a wicket apiece.
In the second innings, just when the Knight Riders were looking to run away with the chase, Siddarth Kaul dismissed Sunil Narine in the powerplay. Khan was introduced into the attack in the seventh over. He conceded a paltry three runs in his first over. His next three overs saw him giving away 16 runs but more importantly picked up three wickets for the visitors. Picking up the set batsman in Chris Lynn (48) hurt the Knight Riders the most.
Rashid Khan’s spell made the difference between both the teams and was undoubtedly the turning point of the match. Kolkata Knight Riders eventually scored 161-9 in 20 overs. Apart from Rashid Khan, Carlos Brathwaite and Siddarth Kaul picked up a couple of wickets each.
