For a long time, it looked like the Kolkata Knight Riders had been dealt with the cruellest of hands by the rain Gods. After restricting the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a paltry score with a wonderful bowling performance, KKR looked on course to complete a comfortable victory in this IPL 2017 Eliminator at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, only for the rain to come down.
It stayed wet and worrisome (from a KKR perspective) for over three hours, and just when it looked like SRH would sneak into Qualifier 2 through the back door, by virtue of finishing above KKR in the points table, the rain relented.
The second innings finally got underway at 12.55 am IST (Thursday morning), with KKR's target of 129 reduced to 48 from six overs via the Duckworth-Lewis method.
It should have been a walk in the park for the Kolkata Knight Riders, but nerves and pressure can do strange things.
Chris Lynn (6, 2b, 1x6) walked out with Robin Uthappa to open the innings – Sunil Narine was not sent in this time – and after smashing a six off his first ball, he was caught behind off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who would then brilliantly run Yusuf Pathan (0, 1b) out next ball.
Uthappa (1, 2b) would follow suit soon after, finding deep midwicket in the next over to give Chris Jordan, playing his first game this season, a wicket, but with Gautam Gambhir looking in the "there is no way I'm losing this" zone, KKR looked alright.
Needing just 27 runs off the final four overs, Gambhir (32 n.o., 19b, 2x4, 2x6) made sure his team would seal the spot in Qualifier 2 against the Mumbai Indians and end the Sunrisers Hyderabad's title defence.
The SRH innings was one that started slow, remained slow and then whimpered down to nothing as the 20 overs wound down.
So much is always expected of the Sunrisers Hyderabad opening pair of David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan. Unfortunately, after a sedate four overs, where SRH barely got over six runs an over, Dhawan (11, 13b, 1x4) fell to Umesh Yadav going for a big shot.
The momentum would just not come for SRH, despite the experienced Kane Williamson joining Warner, who scored a tremendous century the last time he played against KKR, in the middle. The two, usually so smooth in their strokes and timing, could not find the middle of the bat, try as they may, apart from a couple of big hits off bad balls that went over the ropes.
For the most part, the KKR bowlers had things under control, reading the pitch well and executing their plans to the T, and the harder the batsmen tried to hit the ball, the shorter the ball went.
In the end, the frustration got the better of Williamson (24, 26b, 2x4, 1x6), who found the man at extra cover, before, two balls later, Piyush Chawla, in for Kuldeep Yadav, castled Warner (37, 35b, 2x4, 2x6).
With those two big wickets, KKR just kept bowling better and better, and with Yuvraj Singh, returning from a finger injury, failing to find his groove, the SRH innings stumbled to a score that was never going to be enough, rain or no rain.
Watch SRH vs KKR Eliminator match highlights
IPL 2017 Eliminator: SRH vs KKR scorecard:
Toss: KKR, who chose to bowl.
SRH: 128/7 in 20 overs.
KKR: 48/3 in 5.2 overs (revised target 48 in 6 overs).
Result: KKR won by seven wickets.
Bowling: KKR: Umesh Yadav 4-0-21-2; Trent Boult 4-0-30-1; Sunil Narine 4-0-20-0; Yusuf Pathan 1-0-7-0; Nathan Coulter-Nile 4-0-20-3; Piyush Chawla 3-0-27-1.
SRH: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-0-11-1; Chris Jordan 1-0-9-0; Rashid Khan 2-0-11-0; Siddarth Kaul 1-0-14-0; Bipul Sharma 0.2-0-2-0.
Fall of wickets: SRH: 25/1, Shikhar Dhawan (4.2 overs); 75/2, Kane Williamson (12 overs); 75/3, David Warner (12.2 overs); 99/4, Yuvraj Singh (15.3 overs); 118/5, Vijay Shankar (18.1 overs); 119/6, Chris Jordan (18.3 overs); 128/7, Naman Ojha (20 overs).
KKR: 7/1, Chris Lynn (0.3 overs); 7/2, Yusuf Pathan (0.4 overs); 12/3, Robin Uthappa (1.1 overs).
