Chennai: A vintage Nitish Rana (80 off 54 balls) on Sunday gave Kolkata Night Riders (KKR) a flying start but a flurry of dismissals in the latter half of the innings restricted them to a challenging 187-6 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the third match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium.
The team was once eyeing a target beyond 200 after a great start provided by the top-order batsmen.
Although, Rana's innings will put aside all the batting woes for the rest of the tournament for skipper Eoin Morgan which was the leading cause of KKR's lackluster performance in the last season.
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Innings Break!
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 11, 2021 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Half-centuries from Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) and a cameo at the backend by @DineshKarthik, propel @KKRiders to a total of 187/6 on the board.
Scorecard - https://t.co/yqAwBPCpkb #VIVOIPL #SRHvKKR pic.twitter.com/7EzlOG6TQP
">Innings Break!
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 11, 2021
Half-centuries from Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) and a cameo at the backend by @DineshKarthik, propel @KKRiders to a total of 187/6 on the board.
Scorecard - https://t.co/yqAwBPCpkb #VIVOIPL #SRHvKKR pic.twitter.com/7EzlOG6TQPInnings Break!
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 11, 2021
Half-centuries from Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) and a cameo at the backend by @DineshKarthik, propel @KKRiders to a total of 187/6 on the board.
Scorecard - https://t.co/yqAwBPCpkb #VIVOIPL #SRHvKKR pic.twitter.com/7EzlOG6TQP
The timing, shot choices and drives made for an enthralling exhibition for the viewers as the left-handed batsman stitched a crucial partnership with Rahul Tripathi (53 off 29 balls).
His drive in the first over off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, one of the most economical and perspicacious bowlers of the league, set off the tone for KKR as he jumped on every scoring opportunity and scored runs all over the ground.
It would be unfair to take anything away from Tripathi who went for some outrageous shots. Finishing his half-century in just 28 balls is a testimony to his calibre and augurs well for Kolkata in the upcoming matches. Hyderabad's yorker-specialist T Nataraj took his wicket.
At the end of 15 overs, Kolkata were cruising at 145-1.
It was exactly at this point when the wind started to turn towards SRH's favour.
Tripathi's ouster brought the mighty Andre Russell (5 runs off 5 balls) to the crease but Russell couldn't change his fortunes after a disappointing last season. An effortless yet difficult catch by Manish Pandey made Russell's appearance very brief and then Eoin Morgan's (2 off 3 balls) wicket didn't help the team's cause.
However, some late attacking by former skipper Dinesh Karthik (22 off 9) brought the team back in the game to some extent as KKR finished with a challenging score for SRH.
For SRH, the team showed that their bowling is always up for a challenge as they made a fine late comeback with Rashid Khan leading the way with figures of 2/24. Mohammad Nabi also took two wickets for 32 runs.
