Deep
- Oct 3, 2021
- 4 min read

IPL 2021 - KKR vs SRH - Dinesh Karthik finishes it in style; Kolkata beat SRH to get to 12 points

Southee, Chakravarthy and Mavi with the ball and Shubman with the bat ensure 2 points for KKR.

Kolkata Knight Riders 119 for 4 (Shubman Gill 57, Jason Holder 32/2) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 115 for 8 (Williamson 26, Southee 26/2, Chakravarthy 26/2) by six wickets.

IPL 2021, KKR vs SRH: KKR beat SRH by six wickets, KKR go to fourth place in points table.

KKR move to fourth place in points table. (BCCI/IPL)

The 49th match of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 was played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and opted to bat at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Knight Riders included Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan in the eleven by dropping Tim Seifert to strengthen their bowling, whereas Sunrisers added rookie speedster, Umran Malik in the eleven in place of Sandeep Sharma. Umran Malik is a Jammu & Kashmir pacer, who has played only one T20 game for them till now.

KKR speedsters gave early blows to Sunrisers

KKR pacer Tim Southee took the new ball for Knight Riders and broke through the defences of Wriddhiman Saha to have him plumb in the first over of the innings. Saha didn’t opt for DRS after discussing with his opening partner Roy, only to find out that the ball was missing the stumps which was observed on ball-tracking.

As skipper Kane Williamson joined Jason Roy in middle, the latter tried to use powerplay restrictions by smashing two back-to-back boundaries off Southee, however, Shivam Mavi bowled tight lines to induce a desperate shot from him towards mid-on into the hands of Southee.

With the SRH innings in trouble, Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan brought his ace spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Shakib Al Hasan into the attack. Williamson was trying to stabilize the innings after loss of the first two wickets, however, he too lost his wicket while trying to steal a single from Shakib.

Spinners flattened SRH middle-order batsmen

Youngster Priyam Garg tried to rebuild the innings, but the languishing run-rate of the team made him play a premeditated slog-sweep resulting in a top-edge, caught by Rahul Tripathi at the deep mid-wicket boundary. Wickets continued to tumble in heaps due to tight bowling by Shakib and Chakravarthy resulting in a paltry score of 115 runs in 20 overs for SRH. Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi and Chakravarthy picked two wickets each while Shakib got the solitary wicket of Abhishek Sharma.

Cautious start from Kolkata Knight Riders

Knight Riders openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer started the chase cautiously on an agonizingly slow surface of Dubai. Sunrisers new ball bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jason Holder, bowled intimidating opening spells, however, Garg dropped a difficult catch of Gill in the second over of the innings off Jason Holder. Skipper Williamson brought newbie speedster, Umran Malik, into the attack, who clocked above 150 kph in his first over to raise the eyebrows of cricket fans and pundits.

With Holder continuously bowling tight lines to Iyer, something had to give way. It eventually resulted in a desperate mistimed shot by Iyer into the hands of Williamson at mid-off. One down batter Rahul Tripathi blasted a boundary off Bhuvneshwar on his first ball but tried to pull against Rashid Khan in the next over which resulted in an easy catch for Abhishek Sharma placed at mid-wicket.

Gill and Rana build the chase

As KKR found themselves struggling at the score of 38/2, Nitish Rana joined Gill in the middle to stitch a partnership of 53 runs, to help the team reach closer to the target, as Gill batted fluently against Holder and Rashid. Gill got out while trying to hit a shot over long-on against Siddarth Kaul when he was on 57, which included ten sublimes boundaries.

With the win already in the sight for KKR, Dinesh Karthik smacked two boundaries to take the team closer to the target. Rana also got dismissed by Holder in the 18th over but Kolkata reached the target comfortably in the final over of the match with T20 pro Dinesh Karthik smashing a boundary.

IPL 2021 Points Table

Knight Riders inch closer to the playoff berth

With the win over Sunrisers by six wickets, Knight Riders consolidate their position in the points table at number four with 12 points. If they win their next game against Rajasthan Royals, they will have 14 points to claim the playoff seat with the help of a better run rate than Punjab Kings (PBKS), Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Mumbai Indians (MI). Sunrisers are already out of contention of the playoff in this season of IPL with an abysmal tally of four points from 13 games.

Table-toppers Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Delhi Capitals (DC) clash in a battle of the titans at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday night. The 50th game of IPL 2021 kicks off at 19:30 hours IST.

Top Twitter Reactions as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad

Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets and move to fourth spot in points table with 12 points. KKR very close to the qualification. Shubman Gill's 57 run mature innings under made it look easy for KKR.

Here are some of the finest Twitter Reactions from KKRvsSRH: