Gambhir Powers Kolkata to 8-wicket Victory

Gautam Gambhir scored an unbeaten 90-run knock off 60

Hyderabad: Kolkata Knight Riders have won the eighth match of Indian Premier League 2016 by eight wickets. Gautam Gambhir scored an unbeaten 90-run knock off 60 odd balls for KKR in this match played against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Chasing a target of 143 runs, Knight Riders got off to a slow and steady start with both their openers Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa playing sensibly and with that discipline required at this level. KKR were batting on 25 for no loss after the end of four overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Barinder Sran were bowling to them, and they had given 13 and 12 runs respectively in their two overs each.

Mustafizur Rahman was then brought into the attack as SRH needed wickets. They were defending a small total of 142 and desperately needed to see the back of the openers. Uthappa was batting at a fast pace till then compared to Gambhir.

Both the batsmen then upped the scoring rate with Gambhir getting to his half century in 41 balls. The 34-year-old southpaw reached the 5,000-run milestone as well en route his knock.

Ashish Reddy gave SRH their first breakthrough off the final ball of the 13th over by getting Uthappa trapped for 38 runs. Uthappa faced 34 balls and hit three boundaries and a six in his innings. Mustafizur then disturbed the woodwork of Andre Russell, who came in the middle after the fall of Uthappa but it was too late as KKR needed only 46 runs from 34 balls.

Earlier, Three wickets inside Powerplay overs stopped Hyderabad batsmen to break free early in the innings and the cautious approached meant the runs dried up for them. From 36/3 in six overs, they stuttered to 63/4 in 12, that's 27 runs in 36 balls as the trio of Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine putting the squeeze.

Eoin Morgan scored 51 runs off 43 balls while Naman Ojha gave him a helping hand as SRH posted 142 for 7.

After the fall of Deepak Hooda (6) in the tenth over to Russell, which left Hyderabad to 50/4, Morgan and Ojha took some time to rebuild the innings before the former began to change the gear in the 13th over bowled by Narine.

Morgan hit two back-to-back fours as they scored 10 off it, and followed that with 13 more in the next over bowled by Chawla with Ojha and Morgan hitting a boundaries each in it. Ojha smacked the first six of the innings in the next over, 15th, off Narine as the surge continued.

Umesh Yadav was star bowler as he took a three-wicket-haul and gave just 28 runs in his four overs.

Morgan completed his fifty off 41 balls with the help of two maximums and three fours, but couldn't go much further losing his wicket in the penultimate over to Yadav for 51 off 43 balls.

Brief scores
Sunrisers Hyderabad - 142 for 7 (Morgan 51, Ojha 37, Umesh Yadav 3-28)
Kolkata Knight Riders - 146 for 2 (Gambhir 90*, Uthappa 38)
Result - Kolkata Knight Riders won by 8 wickets