Kolkata Knight Riders closed out a thumping 80-run victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad after piling up a hefty 200/6 at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.
Sunrisers' quest for victory was as good as over after they lost their top three of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan just 13 balls into the innings.
For KKR, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora were the most successful bowlers with three wickets each.
Sunrisers had a horror start as Head fell to the second ball of the innings. After smashing a boundary off the first delivery by Arora, he holed out to deep mid off where Harshit Rana took a well-judged catch.
It only got worse as Head's opening partner Abhishek -- the other part of the Travishek combo -- was caught at slip by Venkatesh Iyer for two as he launched into an expansive drive off Rana off the last ball of the second over.
That was not all. Kishan followed him back to the pavilion after the very next ball. He was caught by KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane at cover for two to give Arora his second wicket. At the end of three overs, SRH were tottering at 9/3.
The end of the powerplay saw SRH limping to 33/4 in six overs. Andre Russell was then introduced to the attack and was smashed for 18, with Kamindu Mendis scoring 17 of those runs. However, in the same over Russell managed to dismiss Nitish Reddy for 19.
Mendis made 27 off 20 balls before being caught at deep micwicket by Anukul Roy off Sunil Narine, leaving SRH at 66/5. Aniket Verma who had been a bright spot for SRH during its campaign this season then joined Heinrich Klaasen.
But it was not Aniket's day as he gave Varun Chakravarthy his first wicket, caught on the boundary by Venkatesh Iyer for six.
Klaasen hit a few big shots before falling to Arora for 33 in 21 balls to make it 112/7. The tail failed to wag as Sunrisers were skittled out for 120 with 18 balls left unused.
Earlier, Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh smashed the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers all around the Eden Gardens in the death overs.
Iyer, who was bought for Rs 23.75 crore by KKR, was under pressure to justify the price tag. He emphatically silenced the doubters with a knock of 60 off just 29 balls.
He was out in the last over, caught by Aniket Verma on the long on boundary off Harshal Patel as he tried to clear the ground for his fourth six. Rinku Singh remained unbeaten on 32 off 17 balls. The duo put on 91 runs for the fifth wicket, with the last four overs going for 66.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi had slammed a fifty in just 30 balls to revive Kolkata Knight Riders after two early setbacks against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
However, he fell three balls later without adding to his score, caught splendidly by Harshal Patel off the bowling of Sri Lankan Kamindu Mendis.
Mendis showed off his ambidextrous skills, bowling left-arm spin to the right-handed batsman Raghuvanshi and right-arm off spin to the left-handed Venkatesh Iyer.
Raghuvanshi and skipper Ajinkya Rahane were involved in a 81-run partnership for the third wicket before the latter fell for 38 off 27 balls, attempting a reverse sweep off Zeeshan Ansari only to offer a simple catch to wicket keeper Heinrich Klaasen.
Sunrisers Hyderabad had dealt two early blows to Kolkata Knight Riders after electing to bowl first.
SRH skipper Pat Cummins struck first, removing Quinton de Kock for just one in the second over.
Mohammed Shami made the next breakthrough, dismissing Sunil Narine for seven as KKR slumped to 16/2.
Rahane and Raghuvanshi then rebuilt the innings, taking the score to 53/2 at the end of six overs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) won the toss and chose to bowl against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
“Looks like a good wicket. I am terrible at reading wickets. Bit of a change [since last year’s final] to both sides. Its a long tournament, not looking at worrying too much,” said SRH skipper Pat Cummins.
“Looks good. Happy with the wicket. We were looking to bowl first too,” Ajinkya Rahane said following the toss.
Defending champions KKR have had a poor start to the season, sitting at the bottom of the table with two losses in three matches. SRH have also lost two of their three games but are in the eighth spot. Both teams will be aiming for a crucial win to earn two points.
Playing XI
KKR: Quinton de Kock(WK), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ramandeep Singh
SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Kamindu Mendis, Simarjeet Singh, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari
Impact players:
SRH: Abhinav Manohar, Jaydev Unadkat, Travis Head, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder
KKR: Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia