IPL 2020 in UAE: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 7 wickets — as it happened

Dubai: Two former champions, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad, will be looking to log their first points in the table when they face off at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi this evening. David Warner’s Hyderabad, who fell short to Royal Challengers Bangalore by 10 runs the other day, look a more settled side and are fancied for today.

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The Knights, who were outplayed at the same venue by Mumbai Indians in the first match by 49 runs, looked out of depth and need to rethink about their playing XI. A makeshift opening pair of Shubman Gill and Sunil Narine, who were all at sea against the Mumbai pace attack, look ill-matched against their rivals who has Warner and Jonny Bairstow playing that role. It could be time to blood Tom Banton, the T20 specialist from England, though it will be a tough call about which overseas player can then be dropped.

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Knights have the upperhand after restricting SRH to 142

The Kolkata Knight Riders’ ploy of using an additional spinner in Varun Chakrabarthy worked as they managed to restrict former champions Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 142 for four. David Warner will certainly feel that they are about 15-20 runs short – through the KKR batsmen have to be disciplined against both Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi.

Manish Pandey tried his best to anchor the SRH innings with a 51 off 38 balls, but the middle orders still looks thin despite Wriddhiman Saha giving off his best in his first match. Wonder what their thinking is when you have Kane Williamson in the dugout.