IPL 2018: Williamson, bowlers guide Sunrisers to comfortable win over Knight Riders

Kolkata, April 14: Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers put up a clinical show before skipper Kane Williamson struck a composed half-century as they registered a comfortable 5-wicket win against a star-studded Kolkata Knight Riders here on Saturday in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018.

Chasing a modest total of 139, Sunrisers didn't face much trouble, all thanks to a captain's knock from the New Zealand batsman, as they overhauled the target with six balls to spare.

Earlier, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/26) produced another brilliant effort with the ball as he led the bowling department from the front and prevented Knight Riders from scoring big in the latter's backyard. The Meerut pacer, who was making a comeback after missing the previous game due to a niggle, conceded just one run from the first over he bowled.

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The vice-captain was complemented well by rest of the bowlers as they maintained pressure on opposition batters and never allowed them to score freely. Billy Stanlake had another impressive outing with the ball as he conceded just 21 runs from his quota of 4 overs and scalped two wickets as well.

KKR's rejigged batting order looked in a complete disarray. SRH's overseas duo of Billy Stanlake (2/21) and Shakib Al Hasan (2/22) put the brakes in the middle overs, triggering a collapse after a one-hour rain delay.

After being invited to bat first, KKR opened the innings with Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa. But Uthappa had a forgettable outing with the bat as he was troubled by Bhuvneshwar from the first over and was caught behind by Wriddhiman Saha after adding just 3 runs in his account.

The ball kissed his bat but the umpire turned down the bowler and wicketkeeper's appeal and they immediately went upstairs to review it. The ultra-edge confirmed there was a knick from the blade and the batsman started his descent towards the dugout.

Lynn and Rana seized the momentum in two overs off Siddharth Kaul and Rashid Khan who leaked 14 and 12 overs respectively in their first overs. Rana, who was looking dangerous before the rain, fell immediately after the match resumed. Manish Pandey, who was looked electric in the field, took a brilliant diving catch at point to end Rana's innings at 18.

An integral part of KKR's twin-IPL winning campaigns, Shakib became the thorn against his former team and young Australian pacer Stanlake gave him a fine support. The left-arm spinner from Bangladesh took the two key wickets of Chris Lynn (49 off 34 balls; 7x4, 1x6) and Sunil Narine (9) to play a big role in restricting KKR to a small total.

Lynn was the lone KKR crusader in the middle but a sensational diving catch by Shakib off his own bowling denied the Australian a half-century as the star Bangladeshi cricketer once again did his job in the middle overs.

KKR showed defensive strategy early on to hold back their in-form opener Narine, a move that did not help much as their batting order did not seem convincing with U-19 World Cup winner Shivam Mavi coming in at No. 7.

Bhuvneshwar's breakthrough and a tidy two-run over by Stanlake had KKR struggling and others helped the rest of the bowlers to capitalise on the start given by them.