A late flourish from skipper Darren Sammy (29) guided Sunrisers Hyderabad to a competitive 160 for seven against Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL fixture at Eden Gardens, here today.
After being put in, Shikhar Dhawan (29 from 31 balls) and Naman Ojha (26 from 23 balls) shared a quick 64-run stand from 46 balls to begin a recovery act after losing David Warner (4) in the first over.
Later SRH skipper, after getting a reprieve on zero from a butterfingered Yusuf Pathan, slammed three sixes and one four in his 19-ball 29 to push the total past 150-run mark.
Yusuf not only dropped Sammy's sitter at long-on boundary off Shakib but he took the ball past the boundary rope for a six. Sammy gained confidence and struck another six in an over that yielded 15 runs to push SRH's run-rate.
KKR leaked 21 runs in extras, while pacer Umesh Yadav was most expensive conceding 32 from his three overs.
Morne Morkel (1/32) was the pick of the bowlers but it was the extras that hurt the cause of KKR who have already sealed a playoff berth but are eyeing a second-place finish for the play-offs. They need to overhaul the target in 15.2 overs to topple Chennai Super Kings from second place.
Aided by some wayward bowling up front, Sunrisers overcame a poor start when Warner was castled by Morkel with a peach of a delivery in the second ball.
Morkel was bowling with searing pace and bounce and was the pick of the KKR attack up front but the side conceded 14 extras in first five overs which did not help their cause.
It helped Sunrisers run-rate immensely as they were 49/1 in the Powerplay and were even going nine-plus an over with Dhawan and Ojha scoring freely against the Indian duo of Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar.
Narine was brought in the last Powerplay over but Ojha unsettled the rhythm of the Knight Riders mystery spinner slamming two boundaries.
Ojha was more aggressive than Dhawan and slammed Ryan ten Doeschate for a six over midwicket but was caught and bowled by the Dutchman when the wicketkeeper batsman mistimed one in the next delivery.
Manish Pandey was brilliant in the field and ran out Dhawan and Venugopal Rao to give crucial breakthroughs in the middle but it was of little help with Sammy leading the side to a fighting total.
