HYDERABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad could not recover from the early punches they suffered. On the ropes at 104 for five, the hosts floundered to make 142 for eight in 20 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 7 at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium here on Sunday.
Sunil Narine continued to befuddle the batsmen in IPL-7. The West Indies mystery spinner and leg spinner Piyush Chawla had the Sunrisers batsmen in a bind. In a do-or-die battle, Sunrisers struggled. With Umesh Yadav getting his outswingers going, wickets fell at regular intervals to put Sunrisers in a spot of bother.
Sunrisers sprung a surprise with Darren Sammy taking over the reins from Shikhar Dhawan.
"We are hoping for a lot from Shikhar the batsman," said Laxman before the start of the match. Sunrisers openers Aaron Finch and Dhawan failed to fire.
The KKR bowlers came out with a plan and executed them brilliantly. Such was the dominance of KKR’s bowling that they conceded just 13 fours and two sixes.
Sunrisers got two fours in the first nine balls. Left-hander Dhawan, who lost his captaincy, square drove fast bowler Morne Morkel and then Finch had a four to the third man fence off Umesh Yadav but the Aussie opener did not last long as he was caught nicely by Morkel at deep third man.
KKR struck in the second over and Finch made only eight off eight balls. Dhawan tried to wriggle out of his poor form. He square and cover drove Yadav and Morkel, respectively. He struck one more four off Morkel.
But mystery spinner, Sunil Narine ended Dhawan’s stay with the batsman top edging a delivery. Dhawan was caught at square leg by skipper Gautam Gambhir. He made only 19.
Naman Ojha, who excelled in the last match, came at number three. He looked in good nick. He hoisted Ryan ten Doeschate and left-arm spinner Shakib-ul-Hasan for sixes. But Shakib had his revenge as Ojha cut and the big edge was pocketed by Yusuf Pathan at backward point.
David Warner meant business as he swung Shakib for the match’s first six in the seventh over.
Warner got his second six. He had the measure of Narine and put it over the square-leg fence.
K Lokesh Rahul opened his account with a four off Narine. Rahul was bottled up and he finally fell to Chawla, lbw. Chawla came up with a splendid spell in the middle overs. Warner made vain attempt to accelerate the run rate but KKR bowlers were spot on.
The Aussie left-hander was sent back by Umesh Yadav, caught at mid-wicket. Sammy was uncomfortable and could make only a 16-ball 7 and was out in the deep.
The Sunrisers finally could not get to the 150-run mark. Umesh Yadav bowled lively and was rewarded with three wickets. Chawla and Narine were economical, as usual.