Russell shines in KKR win

KOLKATA, India (CMC):

Andre Russell smashed an unbeaten, boundary-studded 49 to lead the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to an exciting six-wicket victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League here yesterday.

Russell clobbered four sixes and four boundaries in his 19-ball knock as KKR overtook their opponents’ total with two balls remaining.

Earlier, the electrifying all-rounder snared two wickets as the Sunrisers posted a challenging 181 for three off their 20 overs.

In his comeback after serving a ban for ball-tampering, David Warner scored 85 from 53 balls, Vijay Shankar finished unbeaten on 4, and Jonny Bairstow made 39 to help propel the visitors to their eventual total.

With KKR virtually down and out, needing 53 runs off the final three overs, Russell snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with an awesome display of power hitting.

Russell took 19 runs off the 18th over bowled by Siddarth Kaul and then smashed Bhuvneshwar Kumar for two sixes and two fours off the next over, which yielded 22 runs, to bring the requirement down to 12 runs from the last over.

Shubman Gill, however, delivered the finishing touch by blasting Shakib Al Hasan for two sixes to cap a stunning comeback victory.

In another contest, Kieron Pollard failed to fire for the Mumbai Indians as they went down by 37 runs to the Delhi Capitals.

Chasing the Capitals’ mammoth 213 for six from their 20 overs, Pollard made just 21 from 13 balls as Mumbai could only muster 176 runs in 19.2 overs