Hyderabad cruises to big win over Kolkata in the Indian Premier League

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KOLKATA, India (AP) — Sunrisers Hyderabad notched a commanding 65-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday to become the first team this Indian Premier League season to successfully defend a total.

Abhishek Sharma (48) and Travis Head’s (46) power-hitting in the first six overs propelled Hyderabad and Heinrich Klaasen added 52 off 35 balls as the Sunrisers reached 226-8.

Finn Allen (28) provided an early threat to chase down a big total when the New Zealand opener smashed boundaries off the first six balls he faced before spinner Harsh Dubey held onto a sharp return catch.

Kolkata’s wicketkeeper-batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi struck 52 off 29 balls, but the rest of the batting crumbled against seamers Jaydev Unadkat (3-21), Eshan Malinga (2-14) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (2-17) as the Knight Riders got bowled out for 161 with four overs remaining.

“Not happy with the way I played but really happy the team was committed,” Hyderabad captain Ishan Kishan said. “Everyone was putting in the energy that I asked for … Head and Abhishek played beautiful knocks out there. The powerplay made the game easy for us because every batter got time to take singles and get a feel of the pitch.”

Kolkata continued to follow the template of teams choosing to field first after winning the toss in its first home game of the season, but Sharma and Head showed plenty of aggression against the pace of Vaibhav Arora (2-47) and Blessing Muzarabani (4-41).

The pair also didn’t spare the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, who was smacked for 25 runs by Sharma in one over during the power play as Hyderabad cruised to 84 in the sixth over.

Kartik Tyagi finally provided the breakthrough when Head mistimed and holed out at mid-on to the fast bowler’s 142kph short-of-length delivery. Muzarabani then picked up two key wickets of Kishan and Sharma in the ninth over that included Varun’s brilliant low diving catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss Sharma.

But Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy (39) regained the momentum with 82-run fifth-wicket stand before Arora and Muzarabani grabbed four wickets between them in the final two overs of the innings.

“We thought the wicket would get better but it got slower,” said Kolkata captain Ajinkya Rahane, who struggled to score eight off 10 balls. “Winning home games is really important … but we don’t need to think too much. Just one bad day.”

Hyderabad had lost its opening game to defending champion Royal Challengers Bangalore. Kolkata lost its opener to Mumbai Indians despite scoring 200-plus runs.

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