An unbeaten classy knock of 70 off just 62 balls by Shubhman Gill helped Kolkata score an easy victory by 7 wickets over Sunrisers Hyderabad as they cruised to 145 for the loss of 3 wickets chasing SRH’s sub-par total of 142 at Abu Dhabhi today.
SRH won the toss and elected to bat. Despite the explosive duo of Warner and Bairstow opening the innings, SRH never quite got it going. Thanks to some brilliant bowling by the KKR bowlers and canny bowling changes by Dinesh Karthik, it kept the SRH batsmen under check. Manish Pandey’s 51 was the highest for SRH and though Saha scored a useful 30 but the fact that they could not accelerate at any stage restricted their total to 142 for the loss of 4 wickets. SRH think tank will have to do some serious thinking as they don’t have much depth in batting and none of the batsmen beyond Pandey inspire much hope.
Chasing the meagre total, KKR started badly as they lost Narine for a duck when the total was just 6. Nitish Rana then made a quickfire 26 off just 13 deliveries. Wily leg spinner Rashid Khan got the better of Dinesh Karthik and the KKR skipper was dismissed without bothering the scorers.
It was then left to Shubhman Gill and Eoin Morgan to ensure that they cruised to victory without any further hiccups. The situation demanded a calm approach and the batsmen were happy with ones and twos punctuated by an occasional boundary. Gill scored a classy half century and the match situation suited him as they were not chasing a high target and he could afford to play himself in. Morgan too got some useful game time and his 42 off 29 deliveries will hold him in good stead for future games.
Gill was adjudged Man of the Match for his calm and steady innings.
