Kolkata knight riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad: In this thrilling match both the teams managed to score huge totals of 200 runs, SRH was so close to winning the match and breaking the record of highest run chase. Harshit Rana brilliance in the last over changed the game for KKR
Kolkata Knight Riders have started their campaign in IPL 2024 with a win. Kolkata defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 4 runs in a thrilling match at their home ground Eden Gardens Stadium. In this high-scoring match, the batsmen from both the teams hit a lot of boundaries but the real stars proved to be Hyderabad’s explosive West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell and young Indian pacer Harshit Rana. Russell first scored 64 runs with the help of 7 sixes and then also took 2 wickets, while Harshit Rana led the team to victory by defending 13 runs in the last over.
While in the first and second matches of this season the team could not cross the score of more than 200 even once, in this match both the teams crossed this figure and entertained the audience a lot. A total of 29 sixes (14 KKR, 15 SRH) were hit in this match by both the teams, out of which 7 were hit by Andre Russell and 8 by Sunrisers batsman Heinrich Klaasen. In the end, despite hitting one six less, Kolkata won the match by a margin of just 4 runs.
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SRH disintegrated after a great start
Kolkata set a target of 209 runs for Hyderabad, to achieve which Hyderabad made a stormy start. For that, Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Upadhyay had completed 60 runs within the powerplay itself. But after the dismissal of these two, the pace of runs slowed down and wickets also started falling. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakraborty and Suyyash Sharma controlled the Hyderabad batsmen. When Abdul Samad’s wicket fell on the fifth ball of the 17th over, the score was only 145 runs.
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Klaasen’s explosive batting
From here, Hyderabad needed 60 runs in the last 3 overs and it was here that Heinrich Klaasen changed the course of the match. In the 18th over, Clauson hit two sixes against Varun Chakraborty, while Shahbaz Ahmed also hit a sixer. Even after this, 39 runs were needed in 2 overs and in front was Mitchell Starc, for whom KKR had spent Rs 24.5 crores. Clausen hit 3 brilliant sixes on Starc, while Shahbaz hit a six this time too. This match of KKR vs SRH proved to be a loss for KKR’s Mitchell Starc
Harshit turned the tables
In KKR vs SRH Match now 13 runs were needed in the last over and Clausen hit a brilliant six on the very first ball of Harshit Rana. In such a situation, only 7 runs were needed in 5 balls and here Harshit turned the match. He gave only 2 runs in the next 4 balls, while taking the wickets of Shahbaz and Clausen. Hyderabad needed 5 runs on the last ball but could not score even a single run and thus Kolkata registered a memorable victory.
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Salt-Ramandeep’s explosive batting
Earlier, Kolkata’s top and middle order failed to make any kind of impact. New opener Phil Salt (54) certainly batted aggressively and hit 3 sixes in the second over itself, but the rest of the batsmen on the other side disappointed. Captain Shreyas Iyer could not even open his account and 4 wickets fell for only 51 runs. From here Ramandeep Singh changed the face of the innings with a counter-attack. Ramandeep, playing for the first time for KKR, scored 35 runs in just 17 balls, which included 4 tremendous sixes.
Russell destroyed the bowlers
On the other hand, Phil Salt completed his half-century in 39 balls. After this, the entire game was in the name of Andre Russell. Russell, who came to the crease in the 13th over, targeted every bowler of Hyderabad one by one. He first created the atmosphere by hitting 3 sixes in the over of leg spinner Mayank Markande and then did the same to the other bowlers. Russell scored the fastest half-century of this season in just 20 balls. With the help of a total of 7 sixes, Russell scored 64 runs in 26 balls. He also got good contribution from Rinku Singh (23).
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