Dubai, Oct 3 (FN Agency) Kolkata Knight Riders had to dig deep as they defeated bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad with two balls to spare while chasing 116 on a tricky surface in match 49 of IPL 2021 here on Sunday. After restricting SRH to 115/8, a patient half-century from Shubman Gill (57 off 51) ensured KKR’s sixth win of the season in 13 games, helping them put 12 points on the table. KKR remained fourth on the table with a match to go while Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians (10 points each) will face each other soon to remain in battle for the fourth spot.
Sunrisers, on the other hand, are long out of contention and will have to be content with the bottom spot as they slumped to their 10th loss of the season. Nothing went right for the losing side on the day as Tim Southee (2/26), Shivam Mavi (2/29) did the damage to the top-order while Varun Chakravarthy (2/26) took care of the middle-order in the latter half of the innings. Among SRH batters, Kane Williamson contributed the most with a 21-ball 26 while Abdul Samad fired 25 off 18 on a surface that offered no pace. Chasing 116, Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer found it hard to get going with senior pacer Bhuvneswar Kumar (0/20) cramping the duo with a sharp line and length as KKR could only score 11 runs in three overs. Runs finally came in the fourth over with IPL debutant Umran Malik giving away 10 runs in his first over. However, Siddharth Kaul (1/17) gave SRH a look in by dismissing Gill for 57. A set Rana (25 off 33) eased off the pressure by hitting a boundary in the next over but fell right after to Holder; leaving two new batsmen to chase 9 runs off 12 balls. Dinesh Karthik (18* off 12), however, ensured the win by hitting Kaul for a boundary in the last over. Eoin Morgan carried his bat as well at 2 not out.