Drama doesn’t always unfold in a theatre, sometimes it does on the cricket field too! And Sunday’s Dream XI IPL 2020 match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad was an epitome of it! KKR won the match in the Super Over after both teams were locked on 163 in 20 overs, and in the process, bagged two crucial points to cement their place in the Top 4 of the points table.
Sunrisers needed 18 runs off the last over and David Warner accounted for an injured Andre Russell to push the match into the Super Over. Lockie Ferguson, who was playing his first match of the season, stood up to the occasion, cleaning up both Warner and Abdul Samad, and restricted SRH to just 2 runs off it. Dinesh Karthik sealed the win for us with a couple of leg-byes in the end.
Abu Dhabi’s turf has now grown to be effective for spinners, and our spinners did well to support Ferguson for the final outcome. While Kuldeep Yadav made a strong comeback with an economical spell (6 RPO), Varun Chakravarthy got rid of Jonny Bairstow, who was settling in nicely en route to his 36 off 28 balls.
The star of the night, Lockie Ferguson, not only orchestrated the win in the Super Over, but also picked up three crucial wickets of Kane Williamson (29 off 19), Priyam Garg (4 off 7) and the in-form Manish Pandey (6 off 7). He mostly bowled fuller today, effectively varying the pace and delivering those dreamy yorkers to fox the SRH batsmen consistently.
“I put a lot of work into my yorkers. The pace I bowl, I can often go quickly for a boundary. Bowling the yorkers doesn’t happen every day but this something that I continue to work on. Today I was fortunate that I got wickets as well,” said Ferguson after the match.
Skipper Eoin Morgan was super impressed with the Kiwi’s first show of the season. “For Lockie to come in for the first game of this tournament and perform in both the 20 over game and the Super Over like he did, I think, was outstanding. The hunger and drive that he has shown off the field, waiting for an opportunity, really spurred the guys on,” said Morgan.
Batting first, KKR rode on a perfect chemistry between captain Morgan (34 off 23) and vice-captain Dinesh Karthik (29 off 14) to push the total to 163. Earlier, Shubman Gill (36 off 37) along with Rahul Tripathi (23 off 16) gave us a strong start. Nitish Rana (29 off 20), too, chipped in with a valuable contribution. But it was the 58-run partnership between Morgan and Karthik that ensured KKR could get those extra runs (42 runs off last 3 overs) in the death overs, which eventually made the difference.
In response to KKR’s total, SRH started off with some explosive batting from Williamson and Bairstow, but they soon crumbled once Williamson got out. It was mostly Warner (47* off 33), who continued to be a thorn in the flesh for KKR till the very end and pushed the match into a tie.
KKR next play RCB at 7.30PM on Oct 21 at Abu Dhabi. Stay tuned on our social pages for all the latest updates. Korbo, lorbo, jeetbo!
