Andre Russell’s firecracking performance assisted Kolkata Knight Riders to pull off a dramatic six wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday.
Kolkata who needed 53 runs from last three overs, forced the Jamaican to do some big-hitting against Siddharth Kaul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Russell smashed an explosive 19-ball 49 to help KKR seal the 182 run chase with two balls to spare.
Openers, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana made full use of the opportunity and kept them in the hunt with a 47 ball 68. The momentum slowly shifted in favour of SRH when the play was interrupted by a tower lights failure. However, when Russell got in he changed the momentum again in favour of KKR. Youngster Shubman Gill got two sixes off Shakib-Al-Hasan, to remain 18 runs not out.
Earlier, David Warner made a wonderful comeback by hammering 85 runs, helping his side reach a challenging total of 181. Vijay Shankar fired an unbeaten 24-ball 40 after Warner’s exit in the 16th over.
Warner bagged the title of most IPL fifties ahead of Virat Kohli.
Jonny Bairstow and David Warner in 10.5 overs got SRH to a massive 118 run opening partnership.
KKR attack looked clueless against the rampaging Warner who was let off twice while on scores of 21 and 68 by Robin Uthappa and skipper Dinesh Karthik respectively.