In a nutshell
Helped by Robin Uthappa’s 50, KKR posted a competitive total of 172 and SRH lost key wickets at regular interval to fall 17 runs short. As is evident from our win probability graph (see the graph here), KKR slowly but consistently dominated the game and never gave the Sunrisers any chance to come back. With this win KKR went top of the table and also registered their second straight home win. KKR have now won five games against SRH at Eden Gardens, the most against any team without losing at one venue.
Find the entire quantitative summary here.
How it unfolded
After being asked to bat, KKR rode on Robin Uthappa’s 18th fifty and Manish Pandey’s gritty 46 to post 172/6. In reply, David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan got SRH off to a steady start but once Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav arrived, their middle-order found it difficult to get going. Yuvraj Singh and Ben Cutting hit some lusty blows but it wasn’t enough, as they eventually lost by 17 runs.
Where the game was won
The 39-ball 68 by Robin Uthappa before Manish Pandey hit 46 in 35 balls was crucial in reaching a solid score of 172, and this steadily icreased the win probability to 0.75 from 0.5 Chasing, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost wickets at regular intervals and ultimately lost by 17 runs. West Indian spinner Sunil Narine stood out with figures of 4-0-18-1. This steady loss of wickets never got the Sunrisers into the game.
What this means for the tournament
With this, KKR move to the top of the points table. SRH is still in the running but it will take some good performances to proceed to the next level.