Sunrisers Hyderabad had a forgetful day against the Kolkata Knight Riders, following their loss in a Super Over decider on Sunday.
Kolkata Knight Riders had put a target of 164 runs for the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The young bowling troop including T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar and Rashid Khan were instrumental for the Sunrisers. They made the task easy for the batsmen by restricting the KKR team below 180 run mark.
KKR bowlers especially Lockie Ferguson who played his first game was overwhelming against the SRH batsmen. Kane Williamson opened the batting with Jonny Bairstow for the SRH instead of the regular opener David Warner.
Later, SRH bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan clarified that the batsmen had interchanged their position due to the injury of the NZ batsman.
Warner is one of the leading scorers in the IPL and also the leading scorers of the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He came into bat at no. 4 and scored 47 runs off 33 balls. Unfortunately, the side failed to win the game and pushed it towards the super over.
“We decided to (open with him) because of the injury,” Muralitharan said after the match.
“He was finding it difficult to run 2s and 3s. We thought this was the best opportunity because he is playing really well, to use him in the powerplay, give us a good total so that it’s easier for us to win. He did his job but at the end of the day it was a tied match and it happens in T20. We tried hard but nothing went our way.” he added.
Sunrisers Hyderabad lost the game in the super over decider in which Lockie Ferguson caused blemished them by taking two wickets.
Kolkata Knight Riders continue to stay at the 4th place in the team standings while Sunrisers Hyderabad remain at 5th place.
