Gill's unbeaten 70 helps KKR stroll to seven-wicket win over SRH

Young Shubman Gill drove, pulled and cut with authority in an unbeaten 62-ball 70 as Kolkata Knight Riders overwhelmed Sunrsiers Hyderabad by seven wickets in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.

Abu Dhabi : Opener Shubman Gill (70 not out) and Eoin Morgan (42 not out) put up 92 runs for the fourth wicket to help Kolkata Knight Riders beat SunRisers Hyderabad by seven wickets with two overs to spare at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Innings

Gill and Morgan helped KKR survive an early wobble in their chase of 143 after SRH dragged themselves to 142/4 wickets in 20 overs. KKR finished at 145/3 in 18 overs.

KKR lost opener Sunil Narine for a duck in the second over after which Nitish Rana smashed a quickfire 26 off 13 balls. Rana hit six fours in his short innings which provided a cushion for Morgan and Gill as they looked to regain control of the chase.

Kolkata Knight Riders Innings

KKR were momentarily put on the backfoot after Rana and captain Dinesh Karthik fell in a relatively short period. While Rana was caught behind off T Natarajan in the fifth over, Karthik fell for a duck to Rashid Khan in the seventh. Gill and Morgan, however, settled down and regained control of the match. Gill hit five fours and two sixes while Morgan hit three fours and two sixes.

Earlier, SRH won the toss and chose to bat -- the first time any team has done that this season. Manish Pandey top scored with 51 off 38 balls as SRH scraped their way to 142/4 in 20 overs.

Points Table (IPL 2020)

Captain David Warner got to spend more time in the middle than he did in the previous match in which he faced just six balls before being dismissed. On Saturday, he scored 36 off 30 balls but fell to spinner Varun Chakravarthy just as he was looking to shift gears.

• .@RealShubmanGill is the Man of the Match for his match-winning knock of 70*off 62 deliveries.#Dream11IPL #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/pl6Ep1mVhd

  — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 26, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  .@RealShubmanGill is the Man of the Match for his match-winning knock of 70*off 62 deliveries.#Dream11IPL #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/pl6Ep1mVhd

  — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 26, 2020

  ">

  .@RealShubmanGill is the Man of the Match for his match-winning knock of 70*off 62 deliveries.#Dream11IPL #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/pl6Ep1mVhd

  — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 26, 2020

KKR's record buy Pat Cummins followed up his underwhelming show in the first match with a masterful performance on Saturday, returning miserly figures of 1/19 in four overs.

• .@KKRiders register their first victory of #Dream11IPL 2020 with 2 overs to spare.
  
  They beat #SRH by 7 wickets.#Dream11IPL #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/xQkR6gha9u

  — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 26, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  .@KKRiders register their first victory of #Dream11IPL 2020 with 2 overs to spare.
  
  They beat #SRH by 7 wickets.#Dream11IPL #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/xQkR6gha9u

  — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 26, 2020

  ">

  .@KKRiders register their first victory of #Dream11IPL 2020 with 2 overs to spare.
  
  They beat #SRH by 7 wickets.#Dream11IPL #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/xQkR6gha9u

  — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) September 26, 2020

Brief scores:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 142/4 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 51, David Warner 36; Pat Cummins 1/19).

Kolkata Knight Riders: 145/3 in 18 overs (Shubman Gill not out 70, Eoin Morgan not out 42).