Sunrisers Hyderabad hosted Kolkata Knight Riders in the 38th match of IPL 2019 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday (April 21).

Set into bat first, Sunil Narine (25 off 8 balls) launched an onslaught to give KKR a blazing start but eventually fell to Khaleel Ahmed, who also soon accounted for the wicket of Shubman Gill (3). Although Chris Lynn completed his fifty (51 off 47 balls) before becoming Khaleel’s third victim, Nitish Rana (11) and captain Dinesh Karthik failed to step up to the plate. Later, Rinku Singh’s cameo (30 off 25 balls) and Andre Russell’s couple of lusty blows helped Kolkata to post 159/8 in 20 overs.  

In reply, Sunrisers got off to a flier, courtesy David Warner and Jonny Bairstow pulverizing KKR bowling attack to all parts of the ground. Both of them were severe on the opposition bowlers and consistently competed with each other in terms of strike-rate. They notched up their fourth 100-run partnership of this IPL season in just 52 deliveries.

Warner and Bairstow completed their respective half-centuries off 28 deliveries in the 10th over of SRH’s innings. Debutant Yarra Prithviraj drew the first blood for KKR by removing Warner for 67 off 38 deliveries, including 3 fours and 5 sixes.

Needing 29 off 46 deliveries, skipper Kane Williamson joined Bairstow at the crease. With the required run-rate under 4, the pair batted sensibly for a brief period before Bairstow smashed Piyush Chawla for 19 runs in the 15th over to seal the deal. While Bairstow finished with an unbeaten 80 off 43 balls (7 fours and 4 sixes), Williamson scored 8 not out off 9 balls as SRH reached the target with 9 wickets and 5 overs to spare.

Cricket experts on Twitter were left amazed by SRH openers’ dominance display of batting which made the mockery of KKR’s competitive total.

Check out some of the reactions: