Cuttack: A change of venue could not bring changes in the fortunes of Hyderabad as they lost to Kolkata by five wickets at the Barabati Stadium on Sunday.
It was yet another poor show by the Hyderabad boys as they slumped to their fifth straight defeat, while Kolkata notched up their fourth win of the competition.
Hyderabad limped to 126/7 after being asked to bat first by Kolkata skipper Gautam Gambhir. Their in-form opener Shikhar Dhawan again led the foundation for his side but the lower-order failed to capitalize on the start after the match started a good hour late due to a drizzle.
After Dale Steyn claimed opener Brendon McCullum's wicket early, Gambhir himself led the run chase with a 28-ball 30. Yusuf Pathan had another poor match with both ball and the bat.
The Baroda allrounder , opening the bowling for Kolkata, was hit for 19 runs in his two overs, with 13 runs coming off the second. While batting , he hit a huge six off left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma but was clean bowled while trying to repeat the same shot the very next ball.
Steyn came back to pick up his countrymate Jacques Kallis but Manoj Tiwary stayed till the end along with statemate Debabrata Das to reach the target with six balls to spare. Tiwary remained unbeaten on 30.
Earlier, Sangakkara came out with Dhawan as the two left-handers gave the side a good start. But it was some superb ground fielding from Kolkata, specially Tiwary, McCullum, Das and Brett Lee, which kept Hyderabad under check. With boundaries drying up (only nine boundaries and two sixes were hit in their innings ), the batsmen were forced to concentrate on singles and twos.
Dhawan finally fell to his Delhi teammate Rajat Bhatia after a run-a-ball 50.
Brief scores
Deccan Chargers 126 for 7 (Dhawan 50, Balaji 2-22)
Kolkata Knight Riders 127 for 5 (Tiwary 30*, Steyn 2-24)
Result Kolkata Knight Riders beat Deccan Chargers by five wickets
MOM Brett Lee (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Points Kolkata Knight Riders 2, Deccan Chargers 0