The 14th match of Indian Premier League was played between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens. KKR & SRH both being among the top four teams, this was surely expected to be one cracker of a clash and yes, it turned out to be one.
Let’s have a look at some of the Top Moments of the match.
- THE UTHAPPA – PANDEY BLAST
The opening duo of Gautam Gambhir & Sunil Narine that produced fireworks in the last match against the Kings XI failed to deliver today and in the absence of their excellence came the partnership of Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey. The No. 3 & No. 4 batsmen came to the rescue as they had a brilliant 77 run stand with the former scoring 68 off 39 deliveries and the latter smashing 46 from 35 balls.
2. UMPIRING – OUCH!
Well, the success of Robbie can be attributed to the error in the umpiring. He got the ‘Rub of the green’ on his very first ball which was bowled to him by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Anil Dandekar, the umpire seemed to have missed out the loud and clear nick. Had the luck not favored Uthappa, there would have been a 0 projected against his name in the scorecard. He rode on his luck and made the most of it and also bagged the ‘Man of the Match’ award at the end.
3. BHUVIRILLIANCE
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been an asset for the teams he has played for and carrying the magnificence forward, the pacer yet again displayed a classy performance with his bowling. Having bowled with an economy of 5.0, he claimed 3 wickets. Death overs being the ones where the dynamism of the batsmen is experienced, he with his toe-crushers kept them economical. Just 22 runs were conceded in the last 3 overs out of which he bowled 2 of them.
4. YUVRAJ FACES THE ENGLISH HEAT
Yuvraj Singh who started the tournament on a great note was given the responsibility of chasing down the target when the Top order failed to perform. With his typical boundaries, it looked as if he is going to snatch the game from the Knights and lead his team to a win. However on the second last ball of the 15th over which was a short ball, Yuvi couldn’t get hold of the pull and ended up being in the dugout. Without his wicket, KKR would have had the toughest of times but luckily enough it wasn’t Stuart Broad but instead another seamer from England – Chris Woakes.
5. WINNING THE TOSS, LOSING THE MATCH
Sunrisers Hyderabad had won the toss and had opted to Field first. In the interview that took place during the innings break, Uthappa did mention how the team batting second will benefit from the pitch. As one would have noticed, nothing of that sort happened and there was a struggle that was witnessed to get runs on the board. Despite some efforts by the SRH opening pair, there was not much that could be capitalized upon and developed into something bigger. With the likes of Narine and Yadav, it only became tougher for the batsmen who followed. Eventually the Sun didn’t rise for Hyderabad and it was another day for the Kolkata fans to chant – ‘Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo’.
– by Akshata Tilwankar
