Venkatesh Iyer made a 25-ball half-century to propel defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders to a massive 80-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday in a rematch of last year’s Indian Premier League final.
The left-hander teed off in the final five overs to smash 60 off 29 balls as Kolkata cruised to 200-6 after Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to field at Eden Gardens.
Hyderabad couldn’t recover from the loss of three wickets in space of first 13 balls before eventually getting bowled out for 120 in 16.4 overs to lose its third straight game.
Kolkata’s big win lifted it from the bottom of the points table to No. 5 with four points.
“This game was really important for us, and winning with margin — that was really crucial,” Kolkata captain Ajinkya Rahane said.
Arora dampens Hyderabad's chase
Hyderabad’s batting powerhouse struggled to get going for the third straight game since amassing 286 runs in the season opener against Rajasthan Royals.
Impact player Vaibhav Arora (3-29) made an immediate impact when the fast bowler removed Travis Head off his second ball and Ishan Kishan was brilliantly snapped by a diving Rahane at short extra cover. Arora should have got one more wicket but Andre Russell dropped a sitter from IPL debutant Kamindu Mendis before the Sri Lankan batter had scored.
And to make things worse for Hyderabad, Abhishek Sharma’s struggles continued when the left-hander sliced a catch in the slips off Harshit Rana’s slower delivery before Arora returned and removed top-scorer Heinrich Klaasen (33) to close out with brilliant figures.
Spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy squeezed the middle-order with their impeccable bowling in favorable home conditions as Hyderabad lost wickets in clusters. Narine completed a haul of 200 wickets for Kolkata in the IPL when Mendis holed out at mid-wicket after scoring 27.
Chakravarthy then ran through the lower order with 3-22 and was denied a hat-trick after claiming the wickets of Cummins and Simarjeet Singh off successive balls in his final over.
“Not a great night tonight,” Cummins said. “Less than two weeks ago, we put on 280. Our batters are at our best taking it on, but you have to think about if you could take different options.”
Iyer delivers
Angkrish Raghuvanshi made an impactful 50 off 32 balls upfront, but Hyderabad had limited Kolkata at 122-4 in 15 overs before leaking 78 runs off the final 30 balls.
Kolkata lost its left-handed opening pair of Quinton de Kock (1) and Narine (7) cheaply inside the first four overs before Rahane and Raghuvanshi put on 81 runs for the third-wicket stand and revived the innings.
However, both batters got dismissed in space of three overs before Iyer and Rinku Singh (32 not out) counterattacked Hyderabad pace in the final five overs.
Iyer took his time before unleashing seven boundaries and three sixes that included three fours and a six in the 19th over bowled by Cummins, who finished with 1-44.
Singh consumed just 16 balls and led the home team’s acceleration with Iyer by contributing 91 runs for the fifth-wicket stand off just 41 balls.