Knights set Sun controls

Hyderabad: A heartening half-century from opener Shikhar Dhawan and handy knocks from captain Kane Williamson and Sreevats Goswami helped Sunrisers to a challenging 172/9 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here on Saturday night.

It’s a total the Kolkata Knight Riders must chase down to have a fair chance of qualifying for the playoffs that begin on Tuesday.

Dhawan was dominant for most part of his innings, towards the end of which he was dropped though, as he hit 50, his fourth half-ton this season and the 19th of his IPL career before falling leg before wicket to pacer Prasidh Krishna in the 16th over. But by then, the hosts were in cruise mode, thanks to Goswami’s 35 (26 balls, 4x4, 1x6) and Williamson’s 36 that came off 17 balls and included a boundary and three maximums.

Later, the scoring rate plummeted as the hosts managed just 31 runs in the last five overs and lost seven wickets! In fact, they managed only four off the final over at the cost of three wickets. Pacer Prasidh Krishna was the most successful KKR bowler, taking 4/30.

The Sunrisers began well, amid some drama though. Goswami on 1 had a successful review after umpire Anil Chaudhary ruled him out even as Andre Russell’s rising delivery missed the edge as he tried to pull, hit the helmet and looped to Nitish Rana at slip on the second ball of the third over. A six over extra cover, a no ball and the resultant free hit crashing through the covers and a bouncer flying over a leaping Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps to the boundary for four byes and then a cut through the field that sped to the fence meant 20 runs came off that engaging over. A calm fourth over delivered by spinner Sunil Narine that fetched only four runs followed but a couple of boundaries in the next one sent down by Piyush Chawla and Dhawan smashing Narine for a six in the sixth saw the hosts race to 60 for no loss at the end of Powerplay period.

The two rattled on until Goswami couldn’t quite get hold of one as he tried to hit Kuldeep out of the park, only to hole out to Andre Russell at long on. The opening stand was broken at 79 in the ninth over.

Dhawan was dropped on 45 when Sunil Narine failed to pouch a simple skier off Javon Searles in the 13th over with the side total reading 110/1. Captain Williamson rubbed it in by swatting the same bowler for consecutive sixes before cutting him into Andre Russell’s safe hands at the point boundary.

Scorecard
Sunrisers Hyderabad: S. Dhawan lbw b Prasidh Krishna 50, S. Goswami c Russell b Kuldeep Yadav 35, K. Williamson c Russell b Scantlebury-Searles 36, M. Pandey c sub (RK Singh) b Prasidh Krishna 25, Y. Pathan c Uthappa b Narine 2, C. Brathwaite c Karthik b Russell 3, Shakib Al Hasan c Narine b Prasidh Krishna 10, Rashid Khan c Karthik b Prasidh Krishna 0, B. Kumar run out (Karthik) 0, S. Kaul (not out) 0. Extras (b4, lb1, nb1, w5) 11. Total (for 9 wkts, in 20 overs) 172.
FoW: 1-79, 2-127, 3-141, 4-147, 5-161, 6-168, 7-172, 8-172, 9-172.
Bowling: Rana 1-0-5-0, Krishna 4-0-30-4 (2w), Russell 3-0-31-1 (1nb, 1w), Narine 4-0-23-1 (2w), Chawla 2-0-19-0, Kuldeep 4-0-35-1, Searles 2-0-24-1.