The Kolkata Knight Riders made a positive start to their IPL campaign, beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad by ten runs in Chennai on Sunday.
Both teams had a few big hitters in their armour and it was KKR, who applied the early blows with half-centuries by Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) got them to 187-6 in 20 overs.
The Sunrisers were in trouble from the start, losing captain David Warner for three and fellow opener Wriddhiman Saha for only seven.
Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey got their team’s chase back on track with a 92-run stand – both players reaching their 50s.
It wasn’t enough, however, as Bairstow fell for 55 before Mohammad Nabi (14) and Vijay Shankar (11) were also dismissed.
Pandey and Abdul Samad tried valiantly, but KKR hung on to win their opening match of the competition.
