Kolkata: Sunrisers Hyderabad registered their first-ever win at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata after they defeated the hosts Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets in Match 10 of VIVO IPL 2018. The SRH bowlers were once again responsible for setting up the match; their five bowlers restricted the home team to 138-8. The SRH captain Kane Williamson scored a patient half-century and powered his team’s chase; SRH got across the line with one full over to spare. The win was Sunrisers’ third win of the season, while KKR suffered their second consecutive defeat following the loss to Chennai Super Kings.
The SRH captain won the toss for the third match in a row and asked the hosts to take first strike. KKR surprised everyone when they sent Robin Uthappa, and not Sunil Narine, to partner Chris Lynn at the top of the innings. That move didn’t yield too much as Uthappa was dismissed in the third over. Nitish Rana, promoted to number three, and Lynn stitched together a useful partnership when rain interrupted the match. KKR were 52-1 from 7 overs when rain stopped play; KKR lost their way and lost four wickets for 41 runs in 6.2 overs when play resumed, and eventually crawled to an underwhelming 138-8.
A mention has to be made here about the Sunrisers’ catching; a couple of extremely difficult catches went down, but their fielders pulled off four outstanding catches in the match. Manish Pandey took two blinders — one in the circle and one in the outfield, Shakib al Hasan pulled off a sharp return catch, while Kane Williamson took a good running catch to dismiss Sunil Narine.
Sunrisers lost their man-in-form — Shikhar Dhawan — early in their chase, but captain Williamson’s calm innings, along with useful contributions from Wriddhiman Saha (24) at the top and Shakib al Hasan (27) in the middle, and eventually a cameo from Yusuf Pathan (17* from 7 balls) saw them home.
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