Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 7 wickets on Sunday, their third consecutive IPL victory thanks to spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
Despite opener Travis Head’s scorching 61 off 28 balls, Chakravarthy delivered figures of 3-36 and Narine claimed 2-31 to help bowl out hosts Hyderabad for 165 in 19 overs.
With a crucial partnership of 84 between captain Ajinkya Rahane (43) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (59), three-time champions Kolkata overhauled their target in 18.2 overs.
Rinku Singh, undefeated at 22, and Cameron Green, 3 not out, led the side home to end Hyderabad’s five-match winning streak after Rahane and Raghuvanshi left.
With six victories and four losses from ten games, Hyderabad, under the leadership of Pat Cummins, is ranked third out of ten teams. With three victories from nine games, Kolkata, ranked eighth, is still in the running for the playoffs.
Finn Allen, the New Zealand opener for Kolkata, took on Australia’s pace star Cummins with two sixes and two fours in his 13-ball 29. Although Cummins exacted retribution in the 27-run over by catching Allen off guard with the final ball, Kolkata’s brilliant start set them up for victory.
Before the left-handed Rinku hit the clinching four, Ajinkya Rahane and wicketkeeper-batter Raghuvanshi put on a valiant stand to get closer to victory. After the left-handed opener rose to the top of the batting rankings with 440 runs in 10 games, the bowlers set up victory when pacer Kartik Tyagi dismissed Abhishek Sharma for 15.
Before Chakravarthy caught him at mid-wicket by Green, Head smashed the bowlers to all areas of the pitch with nine fours and three sixes.
Ishan Kishan was removed for 42 by Narine, and the Hyderabad batting lost direction in the last ten overs as the spinners used the choke.
Tyagi took 2-30 and used his fast bowling to complement his team’s spinners.
