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Hyderabad: Kolkata Knight Riders extended their winning streak in T20s to 12 matches defeating Perth Scorchers by three wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium, Hyderabad on Wednesday.
KKR chased down Scorcher' total of 151 with two balls remaining courtesy Suryakumar Yadav's late blitz of 43 runs off just 19 balls.
The win also confirmed KKR's spot in the semi-finals of the tournament as Scorchers succumbed to their first defeat despite skipper Adam Voges valiant 71 not out off 52 balls.
The Scorchers bowlers did really well to take the game to the last over with pace duo of Joel Paris and Jason Behrendorff bowling well early on and then Yasir Arafat keeping it tight in the death overs.
But with 24 required off 12 balls, Yadav plonked Coulter-Nile for two sixes over the cow corner in the last two balls to seal the game in KKR's favour. Piyush Chawla then scored the winning runs in the last over.
Earlier in the innings, Paris and Behrendorff had bowled with pace and swing to trouble KKR's top-order. Skipper Gambhir (2) departed in the first ball of the second over driving an out-swinger away from his body straight to point off Paris. Jacques Kallis (6) followed soon after to Behrendorff.
Robin Uthappa though remained unperturbed and played positively. During his stay of 23 runs in the middle the Karnataka batsman was timing the ball well earning as many as four boundaries but his innings was cut short by a bouncer in the sixth over by Nathan Coulter-Nile.
Earlier, 18-year-old chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav (4-0-24-3) proved his mettle bamboozling the Perth Scorchers batsmen along with fellow spinner Narine (4-0-31-4) to restrict the reigning Big Bash League champions to 151 for seven with skipper Voges playing a good hand of 71 off 52 deliveries.
Opting to bat first, Scorchers were off to a cautious start with KKR skipper Gambhir employing spinner right from the first over itself. Pathan, Kuldeep, Narine and Piyush Chawla all bowled in the powerplay overs with Voges and Craig Simmons finding it tough in the middle to get going.
The opening duo though managed to score 65 runs between them, the highest partnership of Scorchers' innings, before Simmons (39) departed before man in form Mitchell Marsh (4) disappointed walking to the pavilion for just runs, Both wickets were taken by Kuldeep.
Voges though kept the scoreboard ticking reaching his fifty of 38 balls and despite Sunil Narine finishing strong taking two wickets and conceding just 14 runs in his last two overs, the Scorchers captain remained unbeaten on 71 off 52 balls to ensure that his team posted a decent total against the IPL champions.
Earlier, Perth Scorchers captain Adam Voges won the toss and opted to bat.
Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey in for Pat Cummins and Manvinder Bisla. Scorchers unchanged.
Teams
Kolkata: 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Robin Uthappa (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Yusuf Pathan, 5 Jacques Kallis 6 Ryan ten Doeschate, 7 Suryakumar Yadav, 8 Andre Russell, 9 Sunil Narine, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Kuldeep Yadav.
Perth Scorchers: 1 Craig Simmons, 2 Adam Voges (capt), 3 Sam Whiteman (wk), 4 Mitchell Marsh, 5 Ashton Agar, 6 Ashton Tuner, 7 Hilton Cartwright, 8 Yasir Arafat, 9 Jason Bahrendorff, 10 Joel Paris, 11 Brad Hogg.
Brief scores
Perth Scorchers - 151/7 (Voges 71*, Simmons 39, Narine 4-31, Kuldeep 3-24)
Kolkata Knight Riders - 153/7 (Surya Kumar Yadav 43*, Arafat 3-39)
Result - Kolkata Knight Riders won by 3 wickets
Points - Kolkata Knight Riders 4, Perth Scorchers 0
MOM - Kuldeep Yadav (Kolkata Knight Riders)
