The Hobart Hurricanes have missed out on a crack at $2.5 million in prizemoney after falling at the semi-final stage of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.

The Australian side lost by seven wickets to Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday night in what proved a tough task at Hyderabad, India.

Jacques Kallis (54 not out) and Manish Pandey’s (40 off 32) middle-order partnership sealed the victory for the Knight Riders, the reigning Indian Premier League champions.

Their spin bowlers wreaked havoc on the Hurricanes, who were restricted to just 6-140 after winning the toss and electing to bat first.

Their day didn’t start well, with captain and opening batsman Tim Paine withdrawn due to illness and his replacement, debutant Dom Michael, dismissed without scoring in the second over.

The situation only got worse, with their leading run-scorer for the tournament, Aiden Blizzard, bowled lbw the following over.

Shoaib Malik’s unbeaten 66 off 46 balls and Ben Dunk (39 from 29) helped steady the ship but couldn’t build enough momentum for a bigger score.

“We knew it (the spin attack) was going to be an issue for us and they did some damage early,” stand-in skipper Xavier Doherty said.

“Lucky for us Shoaib held it together for us there and got us up to a target we could bowl to. But unfortunately it just wasn’t enough at the end.”

Despite their loss, the Hurricanes will still pocket a healthy $500,000 in prizemoney.

KKR’s victory was their 14th straight and will face the Chennai Super Kings – who won the other semi-final by 65 runs against Kings XI Punjab – in the final on Sunday night.

The winner will collect $2.5 million, with $1.3 million awarded to the runners-up.

Paceman Pat Cummins is the only Australian remaining in the tournament as part of the Kolkata squad, although he didn’t play in the semi-final against Hobart.