IPL 2023 | KKR Pull Off Heist Against SRH to Keep Playoffs Dream Intact
Kolkata Knight Riders won by five runs (Source: iplt20.com)
Kolkata Knight Riders - 171/9 in 20 overs [Rinku Singh 46 (35), Nitish Rana 42 (31)];Marco Jansen 2-24 (3), T Natarajan 2-30 (4)] beat Sunrisers Hyderabad - 166-8 [Aiden Markram 41 (40), Heinrich Klaasen 36 (20)]; [Shardul Thakur 2-23 (3), Vaibhav Arora 2-32 (3)] by 5 runs.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) gained a five-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 47th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.
Nitish, Rinku leads KKR to respectable total
After opting to bat first, Kolkata Knight Riders could not muster the start they would have liked as Marco Jansen and Karthik Tyagi removed their top three inside the powerplay.
KKR captain Nitish Rana (42) accompanied by the five-sixes fame Rinku Singh (46) oversaw the resurrection. The duo formed a 61-run stand which came to an end as SRH captain Aiden Markram won the skipper-to-skipper battle by dismissing Nitish.
Andre Russell too chipped in with a 15-ball 24 but before his innings gained impetus, Mayank Markande outdid him.
The Knight Riders at one stage were cruising to an extent that a total over 180 runs was well in their reach. However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan, who sent Rinku Singh packing in the final over, bowled well in the slog overs to restrict KKR to 171/9.
KKR bowlers snatch win from jaws of defeat
Though Mayank Agarwal's brief 18-run cameo helped the SRH innings take off, the KKR bowlers pulled off things well by the end of the powerplay, taking three wickets.
Harry Brook (0) was given lbw in the sixth over on an Anukul Roy delivery as the Sunrisers found themselves reeling at 54/4 in 6.2 overs.
The game again swung in SRH's favour as a 70-run partnership between Heinrich Klaasen (36) and Markram (41) set-up the match for them.
While it should have been a cakewalk for Hyderabad from thereon, Vaibhav Arora and Shardul Thakur made it tough for them. Klaasen, Markram and Marco Jansen fell in quick succession as SRH needed 20 runs off 11 balls for the win.
Although Vaibhav had gotten rid of Jansen in the first delivery of the 19th over, he conceded two boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5) and Abdul Samad (21) as SRH chased nine runs in the final over.
With Varun Chakaravarthy given the task to defend nine runs, he first dismissed Samad to almost seal the match and then did the remaining by giving away just a run in the next three deliveries to help KKR win the game.
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 "Aayush Mahajan")
