Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) secured a crucial five-run victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday, keeping themselves alive in the tournament. After being put into bat, KKR’s Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh put together a 61-run partnership to help their team post a total of 171 for nine. In response, SRH’s South African pair of skipper Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen produced innings of character, but their dismissal in quick succession led to a collapse in the middle order. Despite the efforts of Abdul Samad and Rashid Khan, SRH fell short of the target, ending their innings at 166 for eight.
Earlier, KKR’s opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz failed to make an impact, falling to a length ball from SRH’s South African quick Marco Jansen off the first delivery of the second over. KKR lost opener Venkatesh Iyer soon after, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting the big wicket of England opener Jason Roy. However, Rana’s 31-ball 42 studded with three fours and an equal number of maximums put the team on course to a fighting total. Rinku also played a patient knock of 46 off 35 balls to give the side a decent total to defend.
KKR’s Harshit Rana once again exposed SRH opener Mayank Agarwal’s frailty against short-pitched deliveries, putting pressure on the fragile SRH top order. SRH’s Markram and Klaasen produced a partnership of 70 runs, but their dismissal in quick succession put an end to their hopes of securing a win. KKR’s bowlers, especially Shardul Thakur and Vaibhav Arora, helped limit SRH’s score, with Varun Chakaravarthy bowling a brilliant 20th over to secure a win for his team.
With this victory, KKR earned their fourth win of the season, putting them on eight points, while SRH remained stranded on six points, suffering a huge blow to their chances of making the playoffs.
