Hyderabad 162-8 (Yuvraj 41, Henriques 31; Kuldeep 3-35, Morkel 2-31)
Kolkata 140-8 (Pandey 36, Gambhir 28; Bhuvneshwar 3-19, Henriques 2-17)
Man of the match Moises Henriques (Hyderabad)
Hyderabad win by 22 runs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad set a date with Gujarat Lions on Friday in Qualifier 2 after Kolkata Knight Riders came up short in their run chase at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Wednesday night in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator.
Gujarat were beaten by Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday and will now face a rejuvenated Hyderabad at the same venue to see who meets Virat Kohli’s men in the final.
But Kolkata are going home.
After being put in to bat, Moises Henriques did much of the damage with both bat and ball for Hyderabad on Wednesday night, picking up 31 runs before taking two Kolkata wickets – including that of opener Robin Uthappa – during the chase.
The Australian was helped by some solid batting by David Warner (28), Yuvraj Singh (top scorer with 44) and Deepak Hooda (21) as Hyderabad set a target of 163 on a challenging wicket.
A target Kolkata fell 22 runs short of in reply.
Manish Pandey led the scoring with 36, but they could not get the scoreboard ticking over and they eventually ran out of overs.
“I still feel like I left a lot of runs out there,” man of the match Henriques said. “All the bowlers bowled well, and we fielded really well.
“[The ball] was staying low, so facing Morne and Holder was easier, turning their ridiculous bounce to normal bounce.
“We have guys who take the pace off, we have ones who can put the pace on, and we have good death bowlers, too.
“The game owes you nothing. Every opportunity, you have to grab it.”
Hyderabad captain Warner agreed. “Definitely, we fielded well and that’s what we set out to do,” he said. “We knew if we fielded well we would win close games.
“Those two late sixes [from Bipul Sharma] came in very handy.
“We were a little bit short with the batting, but runs on the board is crucial. We took some spectacular catches and we try to improve every game we play.
“We will change wickets [for Friday’s Qualifier 2], but the square is the same. Both teams have batting fire power and depth in bowling.
“We have set the benchmark high, now its about come back and executing it again.”
With agency.
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