Recollecting his form after a long time, young left-arm speedster Khaleel Ahmed scaled three crucial wickets to help Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) restrict Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at 159 for 8 in their IPL match here Sunday.


The 21-year-old speedster got rid of Sunil Narine (25 off 7 balls), who was looking dangerous in his first spell. He then came back to dismiss Shubman Gill (3) and Chris Lynn (51) in his corresponding spells, to keep KKR in check.

Senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with the figures of 2/35 while leg-spinner Rashid Khan (1/23) and seamer Sandeep Sharma (1/37) took a wicket apiece with the Sunrisers' bowlers making life difficult for the KKR batsmen.

For KKR, Lynn was the top-scored with a dogged 47-ball 51. Rinku Singh was the other notable contributor with a 25-ball 30.

Put in to bat, Lynn and Sunil Narine took the opposition to the cleaners. Both openers hitting boundaries of their first balls. The duo quickly stitched a 42-run partnership before Ahmed dismissed Narine in the third over.

Narine's blistering innings of 24 runs off eight balls was laced with three boundaries and two maximums. With the wicket of Narine, the momentum shifted in SRH's favour.

In Khaleel's next over, he dismissed Gill (3). Nitish Rana (11) and captain Dinesh Karthik (6) also returned to the dressing room in quick succession.

Rinku and Lynn shared a 51-run stand for the fifth wicket to stabilise the innings before Sandeep Sharma dismissed the 21-year-old Indian. Big-hitter Andre Russel scored 15 off 9 balls.  He hit two sixes off Kumar before the right-arm seamer dismissed the Jamaican in the penultimate over.