IPL 2018: Kane Williamson guides Sunrisers Hyderabad to third successive win
Kane Williamson’s 44-ball 50 and Shakib Al Hasan’s all-round show helped Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets in an IPL 2018 match at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Manish Pandey had a good night. Ditto Shakib Al Hasan. Then Wriddhiman Saha played a cameo and Yusuf Pathan hit the winning runs making this one Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) old boys’ night out at Eden Gardens on Saturday. Should Kane Williamson have felt like an outsider in this mix, who could blame him? (KKR vs SRH HIGHLIGHTS)
Williamson (50) shepherded Sunrisers Hyderabad to their third successive win of IPL 11, this five-wicket victory following their earlier pattern of choking the rivals first. This was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s first win in six attempts at Eden. (KKR vs SRH SCORES)
Having fluffed their lines with the bat in a match where nearly an hour was lost to rain, KKR’s spinners kept them in the game with Sunil Narine ending Saha’s cameo with his first ball even though it was drifting down leg. Narine then disturbed Shikhar Dhawan’s furniture after the ball grazed his pads and then Kuldeep Yadav trapped Pandey in front of the wicket.
Pandey failed with the bat but took a blinder at point to cut short another promising Nitish Rana innings by pouching a fierce square-cut on his second attempt after flying to his right. KKR never recovered from that.
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Pandey then almost got next man Sunil Narine but though he leapt like a goalkeeper, this time he grassed it on his second attempt. Narine didn’t last long because Williamson took a superb catch running back from midwicket, off Shakib.
Shakib then got Chris Lynn on 49, taking a brilliant one-handed catch. Lynn hit seven fours and one six in his 34-ball knock but proof of how spotty his innings was lay in two lemon cuts that fetched boundaries, a misjudgment from Williamson that got another four and a stiff chance spilled over by Rashid Khan for the over-boundary.
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Lynn’s departure had Andre Russell walking in instead of Shubman Gill. Russell tried to strong-arm his way through a Billy Stanlake over starting with a six over point which Deepak Hooda’s Superman effort almost negated. Next ball, he again went square off the wicket only for Pandey to run back and swoop to conquer.
It just made Gill start his T20 sojourn in more trying circumstances. It also summed up a batting effort gone awry against an attack that had Stanlake’s steepling bounce and deliveries angling away, Kumar’s guile and Shakib’s wiles. And was backed by excellent fielding. And if KKR got Gill too low in the batting order, equally mysterious was their getting India under-19 Shivam Mavi to bowl in the 15th over.