Twitter Reactions: Kolkata Knight Riders off to the Qualifier 2 in a rain effected game
KKR won the game by 7 wickets.
The first eliminator at the Chinnaswamy stadium turned out to be a dramatic affair between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Kolkata Knight Riders. KKR managed to hold their nerves in what was a rain-marred game. Earlier in the day, it was captain Gautam Gambhir who won the toss as Kolkata Knight Riders elected to bowl first.
Suryakumar Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Ishank Jaggi were brought into the playing XI. Even the SRH XI had four changes with Yuvraj Singh, Chris Jordan, Kane Williamson and Bipul Sharma coming in. SRH were off to a slow start before Shikhar Dhawan tried to do something fancy and ended up walking back to the dugout. David Warner and Kane Williamson positioned SRH really well. Both put up a 50-run stand for the second wicket.
However, their quick dismissals one after the another put SRH under tremendous pressure. The likes of Yuvraj Singh and Chris Jordan failed to get going. Vijay Shankar provided some solace with a 17-ball 22. Some splendid bowling by the KKR ensured that they restricted the SRH total to 128/7 in their quota of 20 overs.
Nathan Coulter-Nile was the obvious pick of the bowlers with stupendous figures of 3/20. Umesh Yadav was also splendid with 2/21. Even Trent Boult and Piyush Chawla managed to get a wicket each.
The match had a long interruption due to recurring rains. There was a possibility of SRH qualifying for the playoffs if there was no action as they were ahead of KKR in the points table. However, the rain stopped as the match was reduced to a 6-over affair by D/L method as KKR needed 48 to win.
Kolkata Knight Riders began with a shaky start as Chris Lynn got out right after he hit a six off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. More drama unfolded as Yusuf Pathan was run out off the first ball. Next over, Jordan too struck to leave KKR reeling at 12/3.
It was Gautam Gambhir who played the captain’s knock as his innings helped KKR reach 48 without losing another wicket. They managed to win the game by 7 wickets with 4 balls to spare. Team owner Shah Rukh Khan seemed delighted with the result in what was a nerve-wracking game as his team got into the qualifiers.
Here are some of the amazing Twitter reactions that took place during the course of the game:
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