Andre Russell (49* from 19) played a breathtaking knock with young Shubman Gill (18* from 10) for company as Kolkata Knight Riders got off to a winning start in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
KKR chased down the 182-run target set by Sunrisers Hyderabad with two balls to spare as Russell and Gill stitched a 65-run stand in just 25 balls.
The match witnessed an incredible return to form from a class player, David Warner, a floodlight failure, some clever bowling, but Russell and Gill stole the show with their big-hitting when it seemed Sunrisers Hyderabad were in the driver’s seat.
Nitish Rana set the tone for KKR with a fluent 68 from 47 balls but Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (who was also named captain of his side for the first time), and Siddarth Kaul’s tidy bowling put the brakes on the scoring rate.
Owing to a floodlight failure at the Eden Gardens, there was no play for fifteen minutes and it looked liked Sunrisers Hyderabad benefitted from it as Rashid Khan trapped Rana leg-before soon after play resumed.
KKR needed 53 from the last three overs when Russell bludgeoned 18 from Kaul’s last over and 21 off Bhuvneshwar in the 19th.
The West Indies all-rounder’s brute force proved too much to handle for last year’s finalists and Gill applied the finishing touch in style, smashing Shakib Al Hasan for two sixes over the long on region as his teammates rushed onto the pitch in delight.
Earlier, Warner made a triumphant return from his one-year ban with a belligerent 85 from 53 balls to help his team finish at a commanding 181/3. Vijay Shankar and Jonny Bairstow also played important knocks.
Putting behind the embarrassing ball-tampering scandal that kept him out last year, the Aussie smashed three sixes and nine boundaries. Vijay Shankar also made a fine return to the Orange Army with a quick-fire unbeaten 24-ball 40 following Warner’s exit in the 16th over.
Warner’s 37th IPL fifty also made him the first cricketer in the league to have most 50-plus scores (40) ahead of Virat Kohli (38). The left-hander also has three centuries to his name. Bairstow complemented Warner well by rotating strike well as the duo raced to 100-mark in 10.5 overs during their massive 118-run opening partnership.
Having opted to bowl, the otherwise disciplined KKR attack looked clueless against the rampaging Warner who was let off twice while on scores of 21 and 68 by Robin Uthappa and skipper Dinesh Karthik respectively.
Karthik’s captaincy was over-defensive and lost the review to Warner early in the second over, while SRH made full use of the DRS by overturning a decision against Bairstow.
There was no looking back for Warner who batted as if he was never out of action and pierced the gaps at ease with successive boundaries against Piyush Chawla and Sunil Narine to unsettle the otherwise disciplined KKR spinners.
Warner brought his fifty with a six against Andre Russell and then went on to smack India frontline spinner Kuldeep Yadav for his second six.
Such was the Warner assault that four of the regular KKR bowlers including the frontline spin duo of Sunil Narine (0/29 in three overs) and Kuldeep (0/18 in 2 overs) did not even bowl their full quota of four overs. Sunrisers had done the double over the two-time finallists last season.
