(Image source from: Kolkata Knight Riders return to victory)

Title holders Kolkata Knight Riders kept their hopes alive for play off stage when Gautam Gambhir side beat resurgence Sunrisers Hyderabad  by 35 runs at Eden Gardens tonight.

Sent to bat first KKR desperate to win in reverse play scored 167/7, thanks to a 57-run first wicket partnership between Gambhir and Robin Uthappa.

Then the hosts bundled out visiting David Warner side 132/9, as speedstar Umesh Yadav finished 2/34 and 45-year-old spinner Brad Hogg, once again came to limelight taking 2/17, the economic bowler for the purples.

Interestingly the SRH, which beat KKR in home match, failed tonight measurably as five of their batsmen fell under single digit run.

Moises Henriques scored highest 41 in 33 balls hitting two boundaries and as  many sixes and tailender Karn Sharma, the second highest scorer ( 32 from 20 balls with three sixes) gave some amusement in batting for the visitors.

Top order batsmen David Warner (4), Naman Ojha ( 0), Eion Morgan 5,  Hanuman Vihari 6, Bipul Sharma 1, and Shikhar Dhawan (15) fell cheaply.

Earlier Gautam Gambhir and Robin Utappa enabled Kolkata Knight Riders to  post 167/7.

KKR’s first boundari came from a overthow from David Warner while Robin  Uthappa ran for a single run off Bhubaneswar Kumar.

Gautam Gambhir and Robin moved in tandem scoring nearly comfortably to push run ahead.

Warner in a bid to check run called Praveen Kumar, who  was greeted with two  consecutive boundaries by Robin while new pacer came for SRH.

KKR’s first 50 came from 5.3 overs.

However, Gambhir was out on 31 when he miscued a delivery from leg break  bowler Karn Sharma and fielder Eion Morgan had no difficulty to grab at deep  midwicket breaking Kolkata’s first partnership at 57. Gambhir hit five boundaries  in 23 balls.

That was the highest partnership for KKR tonight when the fans turnout was also  very poor comapred to previous four matches at Eden.

After him Robin Uthappa (30) was out as David Warner held him off Karn Sharma as he drove a low to his right .

The host got another quick blow when hard hitter West Indian Andre Russell (1) returned early as he pulled  Bipul Sharma but the ball went to Eoin Morgan at  long-on when Kolkata were tottering at 3/86. Next Manish Pandey, whol was freely batting  got run out on 33 while chasing for more score as run rate came  down drastically.

Spinners Karn Sharma ( 2 for 29) took 2 wickets and Bipul Sharma had one to  share three wickets between them. And medium pacer  Moises Henriques trapped Ryan ten Doeschate before the wicket on 8 .  Bhubaneswar Kumar also took two wickets conceding 42 runs.

While wickets were falling at regular interval Yusuf Pathan brought some fun for local fans remaining unbeaten 30 from 19 balls.

KKR secured 11 points from 10 plays and moved to 3rd place, while SRH stayed  on 8 points from 9 games to place 5th.

Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warners won the toss and decided to  bowl first. While visitors SRH inducted Dale Steyn in place of Boult, Gautam Gambhir  took Johan Botha and rested Pat Cummins. – UNI

- Manohar. M