Umpire error costs Sunrisers as Uthappa rubs salt in wounds
Robin Uthappa took advantage of a poor umpiring decision by scoring a half-century as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs to go top of the Indian Premier League table.
Uthappa was given not out after edging the excellent Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3-20) behind first ball at Eden Gardens on Saturday and rubbed salt into the champions' wounds, making a brutal 68 from only 39 balls.
Manish Pandey made a brisk 46 in the Knight Riders' total of 172-6 and Sunrisers slumped to a second successive defeat after they could only make 155-6 in reply.
Spinners Sunil Narine (1-18) and Kuldeep Yadav (1-23) put the squeeze on as KKR wrapped up a third win in for to sit pretty at the summit.
#Uthappa & #Pandey helped us post a challenging total vs SRH which was defended well by our impressive bowlers #DusKiDahaad #AmiKKR #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/fp1cICVibo
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 15, 2017
The gamble of putting Narine in at the top of the order failed to pay off, the West Indies tweaker cleaned up by an inswinging Kumar yorker to bring Uthappa to the crease.
KKR should have been 10-2 when the wicketkeeper nicked Kumar through to Naman Ojha, but the umpire Anil Dandeka's verdict was not out and that proved to be costly.
Uthappa was quick to punish anything short, hitting Rashid Khan for six over long-on before the teenage spinner bowled Gautam Gambhir two balls later.
Pandey had a life when Ohja failed to stump Bipul Sharma and Uthappa hit another three sixes in a stand of 77 that ended when Ben Cutting got rid of the keeper, who was given out caught behind down the leg side two overs earlier but the third umpire ruled there was no contact with bat or pad.
Cutting and Bipul were given the treatment by Pandey and Yusuf Pathan added late runs, then got the breakthrough with the ball when he removed Shikhar Dhawn, who struggled to get going along with captain David Warner.
Warner also fell to Kuldeep as even the big-hitting Australia batsman found boundaries hard to come by in an innings that never really got going.
Yuvraj Singh and Warner were the joint-top scorers on just 26, with Chris Woakes taking 2-49. Tight bowling from Narine and Kuldeep deserved more reward, but ensured KKR top the table.