Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi scored respective half centuries as Kolkata Knight defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
After being sent into bat by SRH, Kolkata Knight Riders pair of Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana added 53 runs for the opening wicket, before the former perished to Rashid Khan for 15.
Rana along with Rahul Tripathi stitched together a solid 93 run stand for the second wicket. Tripathi reached his fifty off just 28 deliveries before he was dismissed by Natarajan caught by wicket keeper Saha who ran backwards to complete a brilliant catch.
Mohammed Nabi pegged the Knight Riders back by dismissing Rana and KKR captain Eoin Morgan in consecutive balls.
However Dinesh Karthik scored a quickfire 22 off 9 balls to take KKR to a competitive score of 187/6 after 20 overs.
For Sunrisers, Nabi and Rashid Khan claimed 2 wickets each.
Chasing 188, David Warner was dropped by Pat Cummins in the first over off Harbhajan Singh. The Sunrisers skipper failed to capitalise on the opportunity as he edged a Prasidh Krishna delivery to Karthik behind the stumps.
Wriddhiman Saha was bowled Shakib Al Hasan leaving Hyderabad in trouble at 10/2.
Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey stitched together a valuable 92 run stand for the third wicket. Pat Cummins provided the vital break through by dismissing the dangerous Bairstow caught at backward point by Rana for 55.
The 19-year-old Abdul Samad smashed two sixes and a boundary off Cummins in the penultimate over to keep SRH in hunt. With 22 required off the final over, Andre Russell held his nerves and gave away just 11 runs.
Sunrisers fell 10 run short of the target, as they ended up with 177/5 at the end of the allotted 20 overs.