The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 edition match 8, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), in Abu Dhabi on Saturday (September 26). Both KKR and SRH were eager to turn the tides and open their accounts. Dinesh Karthik-led KKR showed signs of improvements from the word go, courtesy an all-round performance, to guide themselves to an easy 7-wicket win. Pat Cummins, who returned with 3-0-49-0 in the first game, struck in the fourth over to deceive Jonny Bairstow with a peach of a delivery to rattle his stumps. While Warner and Manish Pandey stitched a 35-run stand for the second wicket, the innings got no push whatsoever as all the KKR bowlers remained economical and pushed the SRH camp on the back foot.
Pandey struck around and got some support from Wriddhiman Saha to slam a 38-ball 51. SRH failed to accelerate as Saha managed a sluggish 30 off 31 balls whereas in-form Mohammad Nabi faced only 8 deliveries. As a result, SRH managed 142 for 4. Gill and Sunil Narine couldn’t add much together as the latter fell for no score. The KKR franchise may opt to demote him in the batting order, given his contribution at the top hasn’t been significant for quite some time now. On the other hand, the likes of Karthik, Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, etc. can certainly get more deliveries to face if they move a spot higher in the line-up. Narine, Nitish Rana (26 off 13 balls), and Karthik perished soon as KKR were reduced to 53 for 3. Morgan’s calmness and Gill’s smart and calculative knock ensured no further hiccups for the two-time winners. Morgan, who struggled in the first game, returned back to normal and held the run-chase by bringing all his experience into play. With this, KKR open their account in IPL 2020 whereas SRH succumbed to their fifth defeat in a row
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