IPL 2018: 3 Masterstrokes from KKR vs SRH game

The action on a doubleheader Saturday moved to the iconic stadium of Eden Gardens where the home team was to lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad.

On a wicket that assisted pacers, Williamson won the toss and elected to field. Put into bat by the visitors, KKR didn't get off to a great start as Uthappa departed early in the third over.

On the other hand, Chris Lynn kept on striking the ball but they kept losing the wickets from the other end. Somehow in their 20 overs, they managed to post a total of runs.

Chasing a target of 139 runs to register their third win on the trot, Hyderabad got off to blinder as Saha blazed Johnson for a couple of boundaries before becoming the victim of the Sunil Narine show.

Narine did wreak a havoc in that batting order but due to the lack of support and not enough runs on the board, Knights were always behind in the game.

Eventually, Williamson played a captain’s knock to see his side over the line with wickets five to spare.

Let's take a look at some of the Masterstrokes from the game:

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#1 Giving timely spells to Billy Stanlake

Stanlake picked up some crucial wickets for SRH

Billy Stanlake has been the find of the season for the Orange Army. The lanky Australian pacer is quick and gets more bounce on any surface.

And Williamson has been efficient in using the bowler as per the best of the team's interests.

In this game as well, he was introduced early in the innings and despite getting hammered in the first over, skipper trusted him to bowl the next over and Stanlake justified his decision.

He got his team a crucial breakthrough as he dismissed Nitish Rana courtesy an unbelievable catch by Manish Pandey.

The man returned with impressive figures when he was brought back into the attack to get rid of Russell before he could really get going.

#2 Effective usage of Knuckleball by Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvi used the knuckleball to great effect

Missing out on the previous game, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was back in the business against the Knight Riders at Kolkata.

The most dependable bowler for his team and being the captain’s deputy, the onus was on him to lead the attack for his side. And he did it with absolute ease, bagging three wickets at crucial stages.

One of his recent weapons that comes to the fore in T-20 cricket has been the knuckleball that has helped him fetch many wickets in the death overs.

The king of swing has used this slower ball variation to deceive batsmen of International recognition.

Even in this game, he got two wickets using this ball, getting the pace off the delivery which makes it difficult for the batsmen to get the flow of runs going.

#3 KKR bowling Spinners in Tandem

Narine's spell brought KKR back into the game

Defending a modest total of 138, Kolkata had to come up with some effective plans early on in the innings.

The gloveman for them had his plans ready as he started with pace but quick to opt for his slower bowlers as soon as in the fourth over.

Realising the purchase offered by the surface, Karthik stuck to the trio of spinners in Narine, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav.

The plans did work for him as they did manage to apply brakes for a certain period of time. All the three spinners did share a fair bit of luck as Yadav and Chawla were economical to bag a wicket apiece and Narine concluded his spell with a couple of wickets to his tally.

But it was always to less from the bowlers given the lack of runs on the board as Hyderabad cruised to victory.

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