Blending the yorkers splendidly with the full tosses in the death overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad reduced Kolkata Knight Riders' run-chase to a trickle and defeat in their Pepsi-IPL contest at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy
stadium here on Wednesday. Required to score 118 from 12 overs in a rain-truncated contest, the eastern side's response fizzled out at 101 for four.
Invited to bat, David Warner flexed his forearms for a rip-roaring 91, severe in almost equal measure against each bowler he faced. It saw the Sunrisers soar to 176 for four, fuelled by a 130-run stroke-filled opening stand with Shikhar Dhawan. Four boundary-clearing blows besides nine hits that took off to the ropes like tracer fire were testimony to the Aussie's aggressive intent.
Johan Botha opened the KKR attack under an overcast sky and had Warner going for the forward defensive a couple of times. Not so in the next over as he lofted the off-spinner to the long-off boundary for a one-bounce
four. Botha made way for Sunil Narine, who foxed Warner with his first ball, a breakback.
If Botha got restrictive from the Dr. Vizzy end, Warner improvised with a switch hit to square leg. With 50 recorded in seven overs, Warner, easily the more dominating of the duo, belted the bowling, pounding Yusuf Pathan
to narrowly miss the media box by inches.
At his destructive best thus far, Sunrisers skipper dug out Umesh Yadav’s yorkers and went airborne to pat the speedster’s steepler for a six to backward of square. No bowler could put the brakes on him, as Piyush Chawla realised when he was reverse swept for a boundary. To celebrate the Hyderabad side's 100, Dhawan carted Chawla over the mid-wicket railings.
Morkel from the D.V. Subba Rao end then made inroads into the southern squad's campaign. Warner's attempted pull sailed skywards to land in Uthappa's gloved hands, while Bopara was snared to extra cover Botha. Sidelined
perhaps by his captain's display; Dhawan nonetheless lent much muscle to the cause with a 46-ball 54. Castled by Umesh, Naman Ojha's cameo ended shortly after Dhawan lofted Andre Russell to Botha, now stationed at long-on.
