Bhuvneshwar Kumar made his captaincy debut for SRH.
Dinesh Karthik won the toss and chose to bowl first on a typical KKR wicket. David Warner (85) and debutant Jonny Bairstow (39) added 118 runs for the first wicket and put SRH on the path of a huge total. Though Warner, who hit 9 fours and 3 sixes in his 85, fell with six overs to go, Vijay Shankar hit 40* in 24 balls to power SRH to 181/3.
Andre Russell was the pick of KKR bowling with 2/32 and the team would have rued missed chances, dropped catches and dubious DRS calls.
The task was a tough one for KKR to chase down such a huge total and Shakib landed a huge blow by removing Lynn early for 7. Nitish Rana was sent to open due to an injury to Narine and he took full advantage by hitting 68 in 47 balls. Robin Uthappa made 35. While captain Karthik made 7. SRH looked like clawing their way back in the game after a considerable break due to a power outage on one of the light towers.
34 runs were needed off the last two overs and Andre Russell and Shubman Gill were at the crease and Russell obliterated Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 21 runs in the penultimate over. He hit him for two fours and two sixes. With 13 runs needed in last over, Gill hit Shakib for two sixes to finish the game and KKR snatched a win out of defeat’s jaw.
Andre Russell remained unbeaten on 49 off 19 balls, while Gill made 18* of 10 balls as KKR won the match by 6 wickets.
BRIEF SCORES:
SRH 181/3 (D WARNER 85; A RUSSELL 2/32) lost to KKR 183/4 (N RANA 68; R KHAN 1/26) by 6 wkts