T20 Cricket: KKR Extend Winning Streak To 12 Matches, Book Semis Spot

Kolkata Knight Riders extended their winning streak in T20s to 12 matches, defeating Perth Scorchers by three wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium, Hyderabad. KKR chased down Scorchers’ total of 151 with two balls remaining, courtesy Suryakumar Yadav's late blitz of 43 runs off just 19 balls.

The win also confirmed KKR’s spot in the semi-finals of the tournament as Scorchers succumbed to their first defeat in the tournament despite skipper Adam Voges' valiant 71 not out off 52 balls. The Scorchers bowlers did really well to take the game to the last over with pace duo of Joel Paris and Jason Behrendorff bowling well early on and then Yasir Arafat keeping it tight in the death overs.

But with 24 required off 12 balls, Yadav plonked Coulter-Nile for two sixes over the cow corner in the last two balls to seal the game in KKR’s favour. Piyush Chawla scored the winning runs in the last over.

Earlier in the innings, Paris and Behrendorff had bowled with pace and swing to trouble KKR’s top-order. Skipper Gautam Gambhir (2) departed in the first ball of the second over driving an out-swinger away from his body straight to point off Paris. Jacques Kallis (6) followed soon after falling to Behrendorff.

Robin Uthappa though remained unperturbed and played positively. During his stay of 23 runs in the middle the Karnataka batsman was timing the ball well earning as many as four boundaries but his innings was cut short by a bouncer in the sixth over by Coulter-Nile. Manish Pandey, returning for this game, started off were Uthappa had left and counter-attacked the short stuff dished out by the Perth Scorchers bowlers. He pulled Behrendorff for two boundaries in an over but when it seemed he had settled in, Coulter-Nile castled Pandey for 24.

Veteran spinner Brad Hogg then stifled the KKR innings bowling four tight overs, giving away just 19 runs and kept asking questions all the time. Yusuf Pathan in particular had a tough time against the chinaman bowler. By the time Ryan Ten Doeschate departed for 15 to Arafat, KKR needed 65 off 35 balls. Yadav then shifted gears hitting two sixes off one Arafat over to bring down the run-rate. Pathan though failed to get going and was holed out at deep midwicket for 21. But, Yadav held his nerves well to hit Coulter-Nile for two sixes and remained unbeaten on 43 in the winning cause.

Earlier, 18-year-old chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav (4-0-24-3) proved his mettle bamboozling the Perth Scorchers batsmen along with fellow spinner Sunil Narine (4-0-31-4) to restrict the reigning Big Bash League champions to 151 for seven with skipper Voges playing a good hand.

Opting to bat first, Scorchers were off to a cautious start with KKR skipper Gambhir employing spinner right from the first over itself. Pathan, Kuldeep, Narine and Chawla all bowled in the powerplay overs with Voges and Craig Simmons finding it tough in the middle to get going.

The opening duo though managed to score 65 runs between them, the highest partnership of Scorchers’ innings, before Simmons (39) departed before man in form Mitchell Marsh (4) disappointed walking to the pavilion for just runs, Both wickets were taken by Kuldeep.

Voges though kept the scoreboard ticking reaching his fifty of 38 balls and despite Sunil Narine finishing strong taking two wickets and conceding just 14 runs in his last two overs, the Scorchers captain ensured that his team posted a decent total against the IPL champions.

Brief scores: Perth Scorchers 151 for 7 (Adam Voges 71*; Narine 4/31) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 153/7 (Suryakumar Yadav 43*; Yasir Arafat 2/39) by three wickets.