PICS: Bairstow, Warner take Hyderabad racing past Kolkata

Images from Sunday’s IPL match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders, in Hyderabad.

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Jonny Bairstow and David Warner continued their stellar run at the top to power Sunrisers Hyderbad to a nine-wicket victory over struggling Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League match in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Chasing a target of 160, Warner struck 67 off 38 balls, hitting three fours and five sixes. while Bairstow punished the hapless KKR attack, scoring seven boundaries and four maximums in his unbeaten knock of 80 off 43 balls.

The England-Australia opening pair was in command as the target was achieved in 15 overs largely due to their 131-run stand.

This was KKR's fifth successive defeat in the tournament.

This is the fourth time that the opening partnership between Warner and Bairstow paved the way for a Sunrisers victory this season. The duo had guided SRH to victories against Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals in similar fashion.

KKR were sloppy in the field and ended up paying heavily for their mistakes. Bairstow was dropped twice, once on 5 by K C Cariappa off debutant Prithvi Raj's delivery in the second over and then again on 58 by Piyush Chawla off Sunil Narine.

The troika of spinners were the reason for KKR's downfall as Sunil Narine (0/34 in 4 overs), KC Cariappa (0/34 in 2 overs) and Piyush Chawla (0/38 in 3 overs) gave away  106 runs in nine overs.

Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav was dropped from the playing eleven.

Prithvi (1/29) got KKR’s only success, dismissing the threatening Australian but it was a little too late as the hosts needed just 29 runs off 40 balls.

With Warner gone, Kane Williamson (8 off 9 balls) walked in but the captain had little to do as Bairstow hit a four and two sixes to seal victory.

Following the win, Sunrisers Hyderabad jumped to fourth with 10 points from nine matches while KKR remain sixth with eight points from 10 games.

Earlier, left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed grabbed three wickets in an impressive spell to help Sunrisers restrict Kolkata to 159 for 8.

The 21-year-old speedster dismissed Sunil Narine (25 off 7 balls), who was looking dangerous, in his first spell and then came back to dismiss Shubman Gill (3) and Chris Lynn (51) in corresponding spells to keep the Knight Riders in check.

Senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar had figures of 2 for 35 while leg-spinner Rashid Khan (1-23) and seamer Sandeep Sharma (1-37) took a wicket each as the Sunrisers bowlers made life difficult for the KKR batsmen.

Lynn top-scored for KKR with a dogged 47-ball 51. Rinku Singh was the other notable contributor with a 25-ball 30.

Put in to bat, Lynn and Narine took the opposition to the cleaners early. Both openers hit boundaries off the first deliveries they faced. The duo quickly stitched a 42-run partnership before Ahmed dismissed Narine in the third over.

Narine's blistering innings of 24 runs off eight balls was laced with three boundaries and two maximums.

Following Narine exit, the momentum shifted in Sunrisers’s favour. Khaleel then dismissed Gill (3) in his next over.

Nitish Rana (11) and captain Dinesh Karthik (6) also returned to the dressing room in quick succession.

Rinku and Lynn shared a 51-run stand for the fifth wicket to stabilise the innings before Sandeep Sharma dismissed the 21-year-old Indian.

Big-hitter Andre Russel scored 15 off 9 balls. He hit two sixes off Kumar before the right-arm seamer dismissed the Jamaican in the penultimate over.