Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by 5 wickets against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Chris Lynn was awarded the Man of the Match for his exceptional match-winning knock that headed Kolkata Knight Riders in the playoffs in a must-win situation. Team Circle of Cricket gets down to list the 5 talking points of the match.
SRH openers get off to a flyer
Sunrisers Hyderabad openers, Shikhar Dhawan and Shreevats Goswami got the team to a flyer with playing those attacking shots upfront in the innings. Shreevats, who was promoted up in the top order overcame a shaky start to give SRH a quickfire start.
Shikhar Dhawan also impressed the audience with his 32nd IPL half-century that gave the home team an ambush start before falling to Prasidh Krishna. Both the openers added 79 runs for the opening partnership.
KKR bounced back between overs 15 to 20
Kolkata Knight Riders bounced back in the latter half with confronting SRH during the last 5 overs of the first innings. The visitors only conceded 31 runs in their last five overs that was a spectacular performance by the bowlers of KKR.
Prasidh Krishna let KKR's fightback, dismissing Dhawan and then going on to finish with figures of 4 for 30 as SRH were restricted to 172. This was only his fifth IPL match of his career, a splendid performance indeed by the youngster.
Narine hits 29 off 10 deliveries
Sunil Narine started off his mark with a blistering start to provide Kolkata Knight Riders with a good and swift start. Narine scored 29 runs in just 10 deliveries that included 4 fours and 2 mighty sixes. Surely he has always been a crucial player for Kolkata Knight Riders.
If the player continues to provide KKR with a flourishing start then definitely no one can bound Kolkata Knight Riders to win VIVO IPL 2018. His form will be undoubtedly pivotal for the Knights.
Lynn-Uthappa sheds KKR in the middle overs
While Sunil Narine got away to another sparkling start, Chris Lynn set himself up for a substantial total. Lynn came up with a half-century to strengthen KKR chase while Robin Uthappa also batted brilliantly for valuable 45.
They hammered 67 runs for the 2nd wicket partnership to nourish KKR chase a big total comfortably. Their responsible innings took Kolkata to qualify for the playoffs with 16 points on the points table.
Dinesh finishes the job for KKR
Dinesh Karthik, the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders finished the job for KKR after Kolkata beat Sunrisers Hyderabad to clinch a convincing victory and qualifying for the playoffs. He played a great hand taking his side to a powerful win over Hyderabad. KKR completed the win in the final over of the game to seal their playoffs berth.
KKR reached the target in 19.4 overs after Prasidh Krishna's four-wicket haul and Sunil Narine's tight bowling kept SRH to a par total of 172 for 9. SRH will head to Mumbai to play the first Qualifier. KKR, on the other hand, will have wait for the result of the Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab clash.
