Rain played its part in the first match of the day at Vishakapattanam as the hosts SRH won its first match at home in three attempts.David Warner led front the front with a 55 ball 91, but it was the miserly bowling at the death bowlers which enabled SRH to win after KKR was set a revised target of 118 in 12 overs. KKR would be disappointed they couldn’t chase down the total in a shortened game, especially after both their openers were let off by some ordinary catching from Sunrisers.
Gautam Gambhir decided to open the bowling with Johan Botha, playing his first match of the season, coming into the side for Ten Doeschate. THe SRH openers , Warner and Dhawan however were up to the task and played the ball on merit. Not taking undue risks, they took their time to settle before Warner unleashed his array of strokes. Botha was the standout bowler giving away only 26 off his 4 overs, while Andre Russell was strangely given only one over, that too the 19th. The opening stand of Dhawan and Warner lasted for 14 overs in which they piled up 130 runs, so it was really surprising why the West Indian all rounder was not given a try. Warner was eventually dismissed by Morne Morkel, and the SRH middle order couldn’t push on towards the end, managing only 45 in the last 6 overs to finish at 176/4.
Huge clouds at gathered at the break and in no time the rains started, initially a drizzle which became a downpour. An hour and 30 minutes were lost but the groundsmen were able to achieve conditions enough for a 12 over match with a revised target of 118. With KKR batsmen in good nick and 10 wickets to achieve the target, SRH would have started regretting their score which was at least 20 runs short than they would have liked. Dale Steyn charged in with purpose, but the SRH fielders didn’t help his cause. Uthappa was first dropped at slips by Lokesh Rahul and then Gambhir by Pravin Kumar at third man region, both sitters.The KKR skipper however was not able to capitalise and was bowled by Praveen Kumar. Robin Uthappa looked in fine touch flicking two sixes on the leg side, but was out attempting a similar shot off Henriques. Andre Russell came into join Manish Pandey at the crease with overs starting to run out for KKR. Russell hit two sixes and a four to get to 19 in 9 balls and it seemed KKR had the measure of the SRH bowlers. But the dismissal of Russell in a 7 run over changed the complexion of the game. Five runs in the next over bowled by B Kumar and the pressure was getting to KKR. Yusuf Pathan & Manish Pandey couldn’t get the ball from under the bat, as BK & PK bowled a length similar to how Malinga & Kulashekara bowled in the T20 World Cup final last year.KKR eventually fell short by 17 runs, with David Warner picking up the MoM award
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