IPL 2021 | KKR vs SRH: Hits and Flops as Knight Riders inch closer to Playoffs qualification

It looked like a cakewalk, but in the ned turned out to be a hard-earned victory for Kolkata Knight Riders as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets to register their sixth victory of the season. Courtesy of that win, the Knight Riders have now reached 12 points and are just one more win away from the ultimate playoffs birth which looked like a distant dream at the start of the UAE leg. 

For Sunrisers, it was an opportunity to become a party pooper and minimise KKR’s chances of qualification. However, they were not able to do it and suffered yet another defeat, their 10th of the season. 

Courtesy this result, the chances of Punjab Kings’ qualification hang by a thread, but a thread that is too lose to carry them through as they are far distant from KKR in terms of the net run rate and the best that they can finish is with the same points as other three in Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and the Knight Riders. 

This victory has also put KKR in a position where they will be the ultimate gainers even if it comes to Fatal Fourway for the last spot in the playoffs as they have a far better net run rate than the other three teams. 

Thus, the men who were responsible for getting KKR to this position must be placed in the category of Hits and those, who were unable to get Hyderabad a consolation win will be placed in the category of Flops and they shall all be discussed in detail in the section below. 

Hits

Shubman Gill

Shubaman Gill over the past few innings had been edging to do something big and although not much good came out of it all, and he remained in search of a fulfilling knock, it finally came at the much needed time. His first fifty of IPL 2021 was a primary reason for Kolkata’s triumph when it looked like struggling big time after Venkatesh Iyer and Rahul Tripathi’s dismissal in succession. 

Gill played cautiously and at the same time keeping in mind that he has to get his team home. In the first 30 balls that he faced, the 23-year-old could score only 24 runs, it was the later 20 balls, that he was able to somewhat express himself and played with such freedom that broke the tight grip Sunrisers bowlers had caused on the flow of KKR runs. 

In total, the right-handed batter scored 57 runs off 50 balls which included 10 fours. Thanks to this match-winning innings, Punjab born was chosen as Player of the Match. 

Tim Southee

Drafted into the team as a replacement for most expensive KKR player Pat Cummins and then drafted into the playing XI as a replacement for the most dynamic KKR player Andre Russell, Tim Southee has been able to live up to the billing in the three games that he has played. While he bowled a brilliant last over against Delhi Capitals, the Kiwi was a bit unlucky against Punjab Kings to not have had the two wickets as two easy catches were dropped off his bowling. 

But in this game, the experienced swing bowler made sure that he lacked in nothing and started the proceedings with a booming inswinger which removed Wriddhiman Saha and set the tone of KKR’s approach to this game. He then came back once again at the death and removed the most crucial batter, Abdul Samad just when he started to set loose. 

Thus two timely dismissals and figures of 2-26 in his four overs spell certainly made him a contender for the Hits section. 

Shakib Al Hasan

It was a mystery when Shakib Al Hasan didn’t get a chance to play when Andre Russell was injured. Given that Russell is a fast bowler and KKR’s batting was going great guns, it was still accepted that the management decided to go with Tim Southee as his replacement. 

But when Lockie Ferguson got injured and KKR played with only four specialist bowlers and chose to play Tim Seifert instead of Shakib, it became disappointingly mystical as to how a team can ignore one of the greatest all-rounders of all times in favour of a batter who is yet to even prove his talent. 

However, Eoin Morgan and McCullum corrected their mistake and Shakib was given a go for the men in purple. And then what did the man do in his first over itself? He proved his worth and hit a throw from such a range and with such difficulty that it looked like a work of dreams. 

Bowling the fifth ball of his first over to SRH skipper Kane Williamson, he hit the bullseye in the follow-through to get rid of the most dangerous man in the entire Orange brigade’s batting lineup. 

Williamson turned the short ball towards short mid-wicket and took off for a single. However, Shakib ran quickly and fired a direct hit while turning back and falling afterwards to hit the wickets and give his team the biggest moment of celebration. After that, the 34-year-old also got rid of dangerous Abhishek Sharma and gave away only 20 runs in his four overs. 

Flops

Kane Williamson

The Sunsrisers skipper has not been up to the mark ever since the UAE leg started. Apart from that one knock of 51 against Rajasthan Royals, Willaimson has not been able to either get starts or convert them. While in two games (including this one) he has gone past 15 runs (which is considered a start in the T20I format) but hasn’t been able to convert. 

True that his run out was nothing short of brilliance today, but the fact that he chose to get himself in a dangerous position to get run out speaks volumes about how much pressure he was taking upon himself which ultimately became the cause of his fall. 

Priyam Garg did create a lot of pressure on Willaimson by eating up balls during their 23 run partnership but had he just stood there long enough, the result might have been different with the kind of efforts that his bowler put in later on. 

Jason Roy

Roy was brought into the XI in place of an SRH legend, David Warner after the latter failed to do well even when he was given a second chance in the UAE leg. The Englishman did perform well in the first game to score a half-century, but since then he has not been able to replicate his efforts in the next two games. 

It is not the fact that he is getting out quickly, it is the shots that he is playing which is making him look like a bad decision to replace with Warner. In this game too, he pulled a slower bouncer straight to Southee at mid-on when that wasn’t even necessary as the team was going through a rebuilding phase after Saha’s dismissal. 

However, even after these failures, as things stand, he might still get a go in the next two games and thus has a chance to make amends. 

Sunrisers next play RCB and would look to get one past the old foes, even as their dismal seasons nears ending. Knight Riders though would await Rajasthan Royals in their last league game and if Royals manage to defeat Mumbai in their game before they meet the purple brigade, their clash would turn out to be a pre-qualifier.