[caption id="attachment_14682" align="alignnone" width="580"]KKR-players-celebrating-aft Kolkata Knight Riders celebrate the fall of a Sunrisers Hyderabad wicket at Eden Gardens on Sunday. Image Source: Xtra Time[/caption] Kolkata: Two-time former champions Kolkata Knight Riders relied on their trusted spin attack to advance into the play-offs with a 22-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their must-win Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament here today. Chasing a stiff 172 on a slow Eden Gardens turner, Sunrisers Hyderabad remained in the race with Shikhar Dhawan's fourth halfcentury of the season, studded with four boundaries and three sixes. The lefthanded Indian opener looked to eliminate KKR with his shots allround the park but it was the home team's young spinner Kuldeep Yadav who triggered the collapse dismissing Dhawan for 51 (30 balls) to return with an impressive 2/28 that included 12 dot balls. Sunil Narine was the wrecker in chief as the wily off spinner castled David Warner early en route to a brilliant 3/26 to set up their win by restricting Hyderabad for 149/8. The two-time former champions thus qualified to the eliminator and their opponents will be decided after the match betwen Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils later in the evening. It was a Gautam Gambhir masterstroke to bring the rookie chinaman spinner in place of Piyush Chawla as Yadav who was playing his second match after a more than a month's gap did not disappoint. With runrate creeping up, a well-set Dhawan immediately after completing his fifty swept Yadav with a low shot but unable to clear deep midwicket where Colin Munro took an easy catch. Four balls later, Naman Ojha perished to Narine but Yuvraj Singh kept them in the hunt smacking Yadav for two successive sixes in the next over. But their third spinner Shakib Al Hasan cut short veteran lefthander's quickfire innings for 19 to return with 1/34. Hyderabad skipper David Warner looked in imperious form with a boundary and a six but could not convert his explosive start after being foxed by Narine in his first over. But Dhawan kept them in the hunt and in his well-crafted halfcentury and did not let the KKR spin ploy settle down with his expansive shots. It was a time when KKR were trying to put pressure with an all-spin attack but the lefthanded Indian opener was unfazed and danced down to smash Shakib with an inside out six over cover. There was Narine at the other end and the wily offspinner was getting turn but Dhawan managed to clear the boundary with his ferocious sweep, down on one knee. Gambhir brought on his lanky medium pacer Holder but the result was no different and Dhawan raced to his fourth fifty this season in 28 balls with a boundary off Shakib in the 11th over. Yusuf Pathan struck his third halfcentury of the ninth season and looked to threaten the proceedings before some brilliant death bowling by Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 171/6. Continuing his fine form, the veteran allrounder remained unbeaten on 52 from 34 balls (3x4, 2x6) and got a fine support from talented youngster Manish Pandey (48 from 30 balls; 2x4, 3x6) as the duo strung 87 runs from 49 balls in an enthralling fourth wicket partnership. Relishing the spin challenge to core, the duo hammered the inexperienced Sunrisers spin attack and with 141/3 after 15 overs the two-time former champions were on course for a 200-plus total after being put in by David Warner. But Sunrisers famed death bowling came to fore as Bhuveneshwar Kumar (2/31) broke the partnership dismissing Pandey with a splendid diving catch at point by Kane Williamson. Young leftarm pacer Barinder Sran (1/31) also gave a fine support along with Mustafizur Rahman's class act (1/32) at the death that denied them 15-20 runs. The trio bowled 19 dot balls together while Mustafizur was at his tidy best in the penultimate over giving away just three runs that proved to be the difference as KKR could score only 30 runs and lost three wickets in the last five overs.    

IPL 9: Spinners take KKR into play-offs