As the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took on the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens, most of the fans were looking forward to seeing David Warner. The Aussie lad was making a comeback in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after a gap of one year. He received the ban by Cricket Australia (CA) for a period of one year while the IPL governing council too followed the suit. His comeback became unlucky for the visitors as KKR sealed the game by 6 wickets.
Warner wasted no time in unleashing himself in the Orange jersey. He smashed two boundaries off Piyush Chawla in the second over. He continued to score boundaries for the Sunrisers as he even smashed Sunil Narine for two consecutive boundaries. Warner reached his fifty in style with a six on a short ball by Andre Russell.
ALSO READ: Twitterati Lauds David Warner For A Brilliant Knock
The Australian southpaw went on to register his 37th half-century in the IPL, which is the highest by any cricketer as he surpassed Gautam Gambhir‘s tally of 36. However, that didn’t stop him as he and Jonny Bairstow put up a 118-run partnership for the opening wicket. Warner’s knock was cut short as Robin Uthappa held onto a superlative of a catch.
Scoring 85 runs from 53 balls, the innings included nine boundaries and three sixes. While he came close to scoring a century, it was no less for the Sunrisers. The visitors got a spectacular platform to begin with. It also allowed Vijay Shankar to go all all-out as SRH managed to put up 181/3 on board in the first innings.
The run-chase didn’t start on a happy note as Shakib Al Hasan, who celebrated his 32nd birthday and also had the privilege of ringing the bell before the match, got rid of the dangerous Chris Lynn in the second over. Thereafter, Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana put their heads down and added 80 runs together. The partnership was broken by Siddarth Kaul, who scored 35 from 27 balls.
WATCH – Uthappa Takes A Superlative Catch To Dismiss Warner
Nevertheless, Rana showed some intent by scoring went on to notch a half-century in 35 balls, but he still had a fair amount to do as the required-rate mounted at an alarming rate. Dinesh Karthik was the third wicket to fall to Sandeep Sharma. Rashid Khan dismissed Rana after he scored 68 runs. Then came in Russell and turned the game on its head with a knock of 49 runs from 19 balls. Shubman Gill also chipped in with 18 from 10 balls.
Rusell Turned the Game
In the last three overs, KKR needed 53 runs and in the 18th over of Siddharth Kaul, Russell smashed 19 runs with the help of two sixes and in following over of BHuvneshwar Kumar, the KKR all-rounder smacked 21 runs and the equation came down to 13 runs in 6 balls. The game was then finished by Gill by smashing two sixes of Shakib Al Hasan.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad – 181/3 (D Warner: 85, V Shankar: 40; A Russell: 3/32) defeated by Kolkata Knight Riders – 183/4 (N Rana: 68; A Russell 49 ) by 6 wickets
