Uthappa, Pandey help table-toppers Kolkata trump Hyderabad

A 77-run stand for the fourth wicket between Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey helped Kolkata - top the table - by overturning defending champions Hyderabad by 17 runs in the Indian Twenty20 competition at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday.

Uthappa was off to a shaky start after he nicked his first ball to the keeper, but the umpire failed to spot it. He made the most of the reprieve by smashing a 39-ball 68, which held Kolkata's innings together along with Pandey who got 46 off 35 balls. Hyderabad dismissed the openers, Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine, in the first six overs. Their dismissal brought Uthappa and Pandey together. The duo went boundary less in the first two overs, before Uthappa swatted three sixes and a four in four overs. Uthappa went on to bring up a fifty off 27 balls. Pandey could have been dismissed for 8 had Naman Ojha not missed a stumping chance off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma.

Uthappa struck five fours and four sixes in his quickfire knock, before he fell in the 15th over, at which stage Kolkata had amassed 117. Pandey fell three-over's later. The Uthappa-Pandey combine scored at 8.88 runs an over in the 8.4 overs they batted together. Their effort helped Kolkata score a respectable 172 in their innings and eventually overturn Hyderabad.