Manish Pandey struck a splendid half-century but couldn’t inspire his fellow batsmen as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were restricted to a modest total of 142 for 4 against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Dream11 Indian Premier League match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Contrary to the recent trend of captains opting to field first after winning the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner surprisingly decided to bat but his decision seemed to have backfired.
“We are going to bat. I don’t think too much is going to change throughout the course of this game,†said Warner after the toss.
The 2016 IPL champions could muster only 142 for 4 as they were grounded by KKR’s tight bowling and sharp fielding.
Only Manish Pandey (51: 38 balls, 3×4, 2×6) and Warner (36: 30 balls, 2×4, 1×6) tried to push the run-rate up as others just caved in meekly.
The SRH side was always under pressure once last match top-scorer Jonny Bairstow (5 off 10 balls) was bowled by Pat Cummings with a beauty of a delivery.
Pandey and Warner played well in patches but could not get those big overs from KKR. Varun Chakravarthy got his maiden IPL wicket as the tall Tamil Nadu spinner dismissed Warner just after the strategic break. Chakravarthy caught the Aussie opener in his follow-through.
Wriddhiman Saha (30: 31 balls, 1×4, 1×6) never looked like playing an IPL match. When the demand was to hit fours and sixes, he just could not deliver. SRH managed to score only 43 runs in the last five overs.
Andre Russel, Cummins and Chakravarthy took a wicket each to contain the flow of runs.
Mohammad Nabi comes in for injured Mitchell Marsh, while Saha comes in for Vijay Shankar. On the other hand, KKR also made a couple of changes bringing in Nagarkoti and Varun.
Brief Scores
Sunrisers Hyderabad 142 for 4 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 51, David Warner 36, Wriddhiman Saha 30, Mohammad Nabi 11 not out; Andre Russel 1-16, Pat Cummins 1-19, Varun Chakravarthy 1-25) vs KKR.
Courtesy:Â orangecitysports.com