Knights plunder Sunrisers on a two-paced Eden pitch

KKR pacers derail SRH's explosive top order with the help of a spongy track to fashion 80-run win

- Somshuvra Laha

KOLKATA: So frenzied has been the conjecture over when the Eden Gardens pitch will eventually start aiding spinners that its two-paced nature was almost forgotten. Till it reared up in a match where some of the best T20 hitters of the game were lined up against each other.

Rinku Singh struggled, Travis Head couldn't judge it, and even Abhishek Sharma wasn't connecting properly. Venkatesh Iyer said he had seen nothing like it at the Eden in the last two years. Yet in keeping with the fad of going after the ball even when it isn't there to be hit, Sunrisers Hyderabad crumbled spectacularly chasing 200, handing Kolkata Knight Riders a comfortable 80-run win here on Thursday.

Sunrisers know no other way to bat. Which actually played into KKR's hands as the match turned one-sided once it was clear Sunrisers Hyderabad hadn't got a hang of the track's spongy bounce. Looking to flay Vaibhav Arora over mid-off, Head didn't get enough bat behind the ball.

Sharma was half a second early into his attempted hoick off Harshit Rana, ending up gifting an outside edge that almost ballooned to Iyer at slip.