Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets in Dubai on Sunday to keep their playoff chances alive. The win was set up by their three spinners Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarty and capped off by the batsmen led by Shubman Gill’s 57. Dinesh Karthik scored 18 off 12 balls in the end after Nitish Rana (25) and Gill added a 55-run stand.
Shakib added the side in place of Tim Seifert which made an immediate impact on the match. He bowled a spell of 1/20 also running out opposition skipper Kane Williamson. Southee, Mavi and Chakravarty took two wickets apiece. Narine bowled a spell of none for 12 in the middle overs.
After the win, KKR players celebrated the victory with another cake smash. Team mentor David Hussey took the smash upon himself. His hilarious calls of “No more run-outs please” and “Not the pants!” left all the players in splits.
KKR Win Comfortably Against SRH in Dubai
The 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥𝙨 we loved watching tonight 😍#KKRvSRH #KKR #AmiKKR #KorboLorboJeetbo #আমিKKR #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/wTBzsdzG8c
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) October 3, 2021
Shubman Gill spoke about his batting and the pitch during the celebrations were on.
“Yeah, the wicket wasn’t too good to bat on, the ball was not coming onto the bat. And it was not easy to play the shots. In that situation, it was very important to not lose wickets. When the margin between the number of balls left and the number of runs required is less, like a 40-ball 40, that’s the best situation where if you have wickets, you can capitalize. We knew our match-ups and who to target… It went according to plan and paid off. After that we were pretty comfortable” said Gill.
KKR have won four out of their six games in the UAE leg so far. They only won two out of their first seven games in the UAE leg. The side are currently placed fourth on the points table and looks good to make it to the final four with a net run-rate of +0.294. KKR need to win their last game against Rajasthan Royals on Thursday as 14 points would certainly seal their playoff qualification hopes.
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