Hyderabad became the first team to bat first after winning the toss. Manish Pandey (38-ball 51) smashed a solid half-century, but the other Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen “lacked intent” and could only manage 142 for four in their 20 overs. In response, Gill scored a steady 62-ball 70 and added an unbeaten stand of 92 with Eoin Morgan (29-ball 42*) to help Kolkata chase down the total in 18 overs. SRH are now the only franchise who are yet to open their account in the points table.
SRH openers Jonny Bairstow and David Warner played risk-free cricket at the start but at the same time, Pat Cummins (1/19) was outstanding with the new ball. Warner didn’t allow Sunil Narine to settle in but Cummins bowled with the wind and used it to perfection. The Australian paceman made life extremely difficult for Warner and Bairstow (5) and eventually knocked over the latter with what looked like an off-cutter.
Batting Saha in the middle-order was always going to be dicey considering he has operated at a strike rate of just 92.2 after the end of six overs in T20s since 2019. Meanwhile, in the Powerplay, he scores at 164.4. Saha was on 16 off 23 before he finally managed to break the shackles by smashing Chakravarthy’s final delivery for a maximum over deep mid-wicket. While Saha looked far from his best, Pandey was fluent. The right-hander from Karnataka was solid against both pace and spin and brought up his fifty in the 17th over.
In reply, Kolkata lost Narine for a duck but Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana looked in exquisite touch from the word go. Gill got the ball rolling with a superb flick before tonking Khaleel Ahmed for the first six of the innings. Gill then took the back seat and allowed Rana to dictate terms. The left-hander crafted Bhuvneshwar Kumar for two boundaries through the off-side in his first three deliveries before clobbering Khaleel for three consecutive boundaries to help Kolkata race to 38 for one at the end of four overs.
Just when it looked like Rana would take the game away from Hyderabad, T Natarajan had him caught behind for a 13-ball 26. Before the dust had settled, Kolkata lost Dinesh Karthik for a duck, with Rashid Khan pinning him right in front of the stumps. The required run-rate was never going to be an issue and Gill batted with tremendous maturity and formed a solid stand with Morgan. The latter took his time at the start, before finally cutting loose once he got his eye in.
