Rustling of hopes

PTI

Pune, May 14

Andre Russell's all-round brilliance theoretically kept Kolkata Knight Riders in contention for a playoffs berth as they recorded a comprehensive 54-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a must-win IPL game today.

Unrest in CSK?

The unrest in Chennai Super Kings once again came to the fore after senior batter Ambati Rayudu announced his "IPL retirement" on the social media, only to backtrack within an hour after being talked out of it by the team management. On Saturday morning, the 36-year-old former India white-ball player took to Twitter to announce his decision. pti

It was Russell's unbeaten 49 off 28 balls that took Kolkata to 177/6 in 20 overs after they were tottering at 94/5.

In reply, Hyderabad were never in the hunt as they huffed and puffed their way to 123/8 against a collective bowling effort from Shreyas Iyer's men with the flamboyant Jamaican finishing with best figures of 3/22.

Umesh Yadav (1/19), Tim Southee (2/23), Varun Chakravarthy (1/25) and Sunil Narine (1/34) — all stuck to their respective gameplans with near-perfect executions over after over.

Kolkata now have 12 points from 13 games with a net run-rate (NRR) of +0.160 and moved into the sixth place.

For Hyderabad, 10 points from 12 games with a dismal NRR of -0.270 means that even two big wins and 14 points might not be enough after five straight defeats.

Earlier, Umran Malik was back among wickets after a few forgettable outings as he ran through Kolkata's top-order but Russell, along with Sam Billings (34 off 29 balls), added 63 runs for the sixth wicket to give the total a semblance of respectability after Kolkata were tottering at 94/5.

Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders: 177/6 in 20 overs (Russell 49*; Malik 3/33); Sunrisers Hyderabad: 123/8 in 20 overs (Sharma 43; Russell 3/22).