Hyderabad: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) embarked on a much-needed five-run wicket victory over Sunriser Hyderabad (SRH) as the Hyderabadi side was once again let down by their batters who couldn't take the team through on Thursday.
In the first innings, Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh's clinical parternship of 61 runs helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) post a defendable 171 runs against the SRH team. They stiched the partnership when KKR, at 49-3, by the end of the powerplay were in the doldrums. A consisntent below-par performance with the bat has haunting the Kolkata side but the script altered through the curcial stand.
Even when Rana lost his wicket in the 12th over, he had contributed a 31-ball 42 runs that led eventually led to the team to total that they could fight for.
Wickets kept tumbling down and West Indies players Andre Russell and Sunil Narine failed to make much of a contribution on account of which Rinku (46 off 35 balls) couldn't free his arms and go ballistic as he often does.
KKR had a nightmarish start to the innings as Afghanistan's Rahmanullah Gurbaz failing to replicate his previous performance against Gujarat Titans. He fell to South African quick Marco Jansen as his shot went aerial towards mid-wicket only to get pouched by Harry Brook. Venkatesh Iyer got dissmissed five balls later as he too was dismissed by Jansen. For Hyderabad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar didn't allow Kolkata's batter to bat freely as he just gave away 12 runs in his first two overs.
While the two pacers were spot on, Kartik Tyagi initially sprayed the ball all over the place after he was pressed into service in the fifth over. After bowling two wides and a no-ball, the Uttar Pradesh cricketer got the big wicket of England opener Jason Roy. Roy's premeditated cross-bat heave took a big edge and flew to short third man as Mayank Agarwal took a simple catch.
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SRH too were off to a poor start in their chase, with KKR pace bowler Harshit Rana once again exposed SRH opener Mayank Agarwal's frailty while facing the short-pitched deliveries. While the opener was comfortable playing his strokes on both sides of the wicket, Rana tested him with a delivery touching 140kmph and angled into the body on middle and leg stump.
Mayank played a defensive hook while trying to get his head out of harm's way and lobbed the ball for the keeper to take an easy catch. Mayank's soft dismissals put the pressure back on the fragile SRH top-order and eight runs later, SRH were reduced to 37 for 2 in the fourth over after Abhishek Sharma too headed back to the dugout with Russell lunging forward to take a catch at deep backward square off a Shardul delivery.
Here's what the captain of both sides had to say:
KKR, Nitish Rana: In the middle we bowled a few loose overs and took a gamble with Shardul and Vaibhav and they managed to get both set batters and that's how we made a comeback in this game. We had to get them out because if they bat till the end, then surely the game would have gone out of our reach. I had a doubt if I had to go with spinner/pacer and backed my spinner to do the job. I awlays see who is the best spinner on the game and that's how I decide whom to back on the given day.
SRH, Aiden Markram: Difficult. Had to play good cricket in the last portion but we got it wrong. Hard to swallow. Klaasen batted beautifully, I struggled in the beginning and that was part of the reason we ended up short. The bowlers were good, we were throwing ourselves on the field. The batters also got started. Tough one to take, we learn from this. If we can’t execute, we need to go back in the nets and plan better. These guys have played at this venue so we know what to expect. (On every game being a must win now) Hopefully, the situation brings out the best in us. Hopefully, we can go four out of four to give ourselves an outside chance.
Varun Chakaravarthy, Player of the Match: My heartbeat was touching 200 in the last over, but I wanted them to make hit to the longer part of the ground. The ball was slipping a lot and my best bet was longer side and that was my only hope. My first over I went for 12 runs, Markram hit me for 2 fours and that's how the game goes. Last year I was bowling around 85kmph, I was trying out many things and I realized that I needed to work on my revolutions and I did work on it.
