Two wickets from Lockie Ferguson propelled the Kolkata Knight Riders to a thrilling victory in the third Super Over of IPL 2020 after a tense Sunrisers Hyderabad run chase ended with the scores level in regular play at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Kolkata had the upper hand, with Hyderabad needing 18 to win from six balls. Warner swung the momentum his team's way by hitting a hat-trick of fours off Andre Russell. But with four needed off the last two, Russell conceded three and brought the match to a Super Over.
Earlier, chasing 164, Jonny Bairstow (36, 28b, 7x4) and Kane Williamson (29, 19b, 4x4, 1x6) got Hyderabad off to a flying start. They cruised to 58/0 in the Powerplay, before Ferguson (three for 15), playing his first match of this IPL, got Williamson caught.
And when Priyam Garg, Bairstow and Manish Pandey fell in quick succession, Hyderabad was left reeling. Vijay Shankar and David Warner then tried to repair the damage, but Pat Cummins accounted for Shankar. However, it was Warner's unbeaten 33-ball 47 that eventually set up the game for an exciting finish.
Slow start
Inserted in to bat, Kolkata scored just 15 off the first three overs. Shubman Gill (36, 37b, 5x4) got a reprieve in the second over when Rashid Khan dropped a catch at deep square. Rahul Tripathi then switched gears and hit T. Natarajan for a six and a four in the fourth over. Gill broke the shackles with three back-to-back boundaries off Basil Thampi's bowling. It was Natarajan, who clean bowled Tripathi to provide Hyderabad its first breakthrough.
Big finish
Kolkata looked to Nitish Rana (29, 20b, 3x4, 1x6) for a push, with Rashid Khan (one for 28) and Vijay Shankar (one for 20) keeping a lid on the scoring. Rana hit two back-to-back boundaries off Rashid before launching him over long-on for six. As a partnership was beginning to take shape, Rashid dismissed an out of sorts Gill, before Shankar got rid of Rana in the next over.
The move to promote Russell to No. 4 did not pay dividends as he fell for just nine. The slide was plugged by an enterprising 58-run fifth-wicket stand between Dinesh Karthik (29, 14b, 2x4, 2x6) and Eoin Morgan (34, 23b, 3x4, 1x6) as the two hammered 52 off the last four.
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