IPL 2018, KKR v SRH: Rain interrupting the KKR innings is the Turning Point of the match

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have now won three out of three games to start their IPL 2018 campaign in a perfect manner. This time around, they beat the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Saturday (April 14).

Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to bowl first on a slow wicket in Kolkata. The KKR innings started off well with Chris Lynn and Nitish Rana powering the hosts to a total of 52-1 after seven overs.

However, rain interrupted the play at that point and halted the pace with which both the batsmen were scoring their runs.

It took almost an hour for the game to resume, and it was almost like the Dinesh Karthik-led side had to start their innings all over again.

The Sunrisers got the time that they required to regroup in the break and thus, could make a comeback into the tie before it went out of their hands.

Billy Stanlake picked up a wicket in the over immediately after the break, and Nitish Rana had to return to the pavilion after making 18 of 16 deliveries. The home side could never fully recover after that, and though they managed to get some shots away, the partnerships dried up.

Except for Karthik, every batsman that followed Rana got out for a score of fewer than 10 runs, and even the skipper could manage just 29 off 27 deliveries.

As a result, the KKR innings folded for just 138-8 in their quota of 20 overs. A total like that is never enough in T20 cricket these days, more so on Indian pitches of the IPL.

SRH chased down the target by a margin of five wickets in 19 overs, courtesy a half-century from their skipper and assistance from Shakib Al Hasan and Yusuf Pathan, at the end of the innings.

KKR put up a commendable fight in trying to defend the total but, never had enough runs on the board to start with.

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