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The champions of the 2018 season, Chennai Super Kings, started their campaign in a dominant fashion but the runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad could not replicate the same. After Warner's 37th IPL fifty helped his side to 181 in the first innings, it was Andre Russell's manic 49 off just 19 balls that helped KKR win their season opener.
After winning the toss, the Knight Riders asked the visitors to bat first. In the absence of Kane Williamson, the Bhuvneshwar Kumar-led side opted for David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Shakib Al Hasan, and Rashid Khan to fill their overseas quota. Kolkata, on the other hand, went with IPL debutant Lockie Ferguson and three regulars - Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, and Sunil Narine.
SRH's openers - Warner and Bairstow - gave their side a wonderful start by scoring 54 runs in the powerplay. While Warner played the role of the aggressor, Bairstow provided stability to the innings by scoring a 35-ball 39.
The duo added 118 runs for the first wicket before Piyush Chawla bowled Bairstow in the 13th over. After Warner got out having scored 85 off just 53 balls, it was the batting of Vijay Shankar that helped SRH cross the 180-mark. In 24 balls, Shankar scored 40 runs and ensured that Yusuf Pathan's dismissal for 1 did not slow down the innings for his team.
Eventually, SRH ended at 181/3. KKR, in reply, surprised many by sending Nitish Rana to open the innings with Chris Lynn. While Rana made the most of this opportunity, Shakib Al Hasan, in the second over, ended Lynn's innings for the fourth time in the IPL.
Robin Uthappa, who joined Rana in the middle, added 80 runs with the left-hander for the second wicket. The partnership between these two steadied things for KKR but Sunrisers pulled things back nicely by picking up the wickets of Dinesh Karthik and Rana in the 13th and 16th over respectively.
With KKR needing 59 off the last four overs, Sunrisers were in the driver's seat but Andre Russell had other ideas. He smashed the Sunrisers bowlers to all parts of the ground and brought down the equation to just 13 runs off the final over. Shubman Gill then struck two sixes in the final over bowled by Shakib and helped his side win the match by 6 wickets.
Here's how Twitter reacted to KKR's victory over SRH at Eden Gardens:
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