Legspinner Varun Chakravarthy defended nine runs in the final over to earn Kolkata Knight Riders a tense, five-run victory against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.
The Knight Riders struggled to a total of 171-9 after choosing to bat first but fought doughtily to defend their runs and won in dramatic style to keep their play-off hopes alive with a flurry of late wickets after Sunrisers had appeared in control of the run-chase.
But persistently accurate bowling and some poor shot decisions cost the Sunrisers after they had recovered from 54-4 to take charge of the contest. Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen added 90 for the fifth wicket with Klaasen leading the fightback with 36 from 20 balls with a four and three sixes before pulling a slower-ball bouncer from Shardul Thakur to Russell at deep midwicket.
With the game still in their hands Markram (41 from 40 balls) flapped a short-ball slog to mid on and suddenly the game had changed. Abdul Samad (21 from 18) battled to keep his team in the hunt but the lack of an experienced batter at the crease cost SRH the game.
Earlier Jansen (3-0-24-2) claimed two wickets in the second over of the innings when a wild swing from Afghan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) end in the hands of Harry Brook at mid on and Venkatesh Iyer (7) gloved a bouncer to ‘keeper Heinrich Klaasen.
Jason Roy (20) toe-ended a pull-shot to mid off but captain Nitish Rana steadied the innings with 42 from 31 balls (3x4, 3x6) before Aiden Markram (3-0-24-1) held a fine, running catch off his own bowling to end a fourth wicket stand of 61.
Power-packed Jamaican, Andre Russell blasted two sixes in his 24 from 15 balls before legspinner Mayank Markande (1-29) teased him into driving to cover with a flighted top-spinner.
Rinku Singh was caught between the need for consolidation and boundaries reaching a cautious 46 from 35 balls (4x4, 1x6) before holing out to midwicket
Both teams were in desperate need of a victory languishing in eighth and ninth place on the 10-team log with just six points each but KKR have now moved within touching distance of the play-off places while SRH will probably have to win all of their remaining six games.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram (captain), Heinrich Klaasen (wkt), Harry Brook, Abdul Samad, Marco Jansen, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kartik Tyagi, T Natarajan
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wkt ), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (captain), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy