Watch cricket video highlights between Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad. Indian Premier League 2024 third match, played at Eden Gardens.
At Eden Gardens on Saturday, Heinrich Klaasen of Sunrisers Hyderabad came dangerously close to stealing the win from Kolkata Knight Riders, but Harshit Rana, 22, skillfully protected 12 off the last over to pull the home team across the finish line in a thrilling last-ball match.
As Sunrisers gained momentum, Klaasen pulled Harshit for six over square leg in the 20th over, setting up a perfect start for the team. However, in the following five balls, the seamer sealed the deal with two singles, two wickets, and one dot.
Earlier, Sunrisers were silent throughout the middle overs thanks to Sunil Narine’s 1 for 19 in four overs on a batting-friendly surface with zero boundaries. His economy of 4.75 was a glaring anomaly on a surface where bowlers of all skill levels went for plenty. With three overs left and Sunrisers needing to score sixty in eighteen balls, it had given KKR the advantage. However, Klaasen’s 29-ball 63, which featured eight sixes, forced Sunrisers to retake the lead.
Ramandeep Singh, Phil Salt, and Andre Russell were also responsible for KKR’s first-inning total of 208. After falling down 51 for 4 in the opening over, the hosts rallied thanks to 40-ball 54 from Salt, who made his KKR debut, and a 17-ball 35 from Ramandeep. Russell finished the KKR innings with seven sixes in his twenty-five-ball, undefeated sixty-four.
The past eighteen months have been all Klaasen’s, as he has developed into a devastating spin hitter with a wide range of strokes against pacemakers. At the loss of Aiden Markram’s wicket, he entered the game at No. 5, with the Sunrisers needing to score 102 in 8.2 overs. Despite his poor start, he quickly discovered his game against Varun Chakravarthy, going from six off seven balls to eighteen off twelve with two sixes from the enigmatic spinner in the fourteenth over.
With the objective appearing unlikely as Chkravarthy returned for the eighteenth, Klaasen once more showed his might by smashing two more sixes. Then, in the 19th over, Klaasen hit Mitchell Starc, the most expensive player in IPL history, three sixes in a 26-run over as he came back to finish the match.
The Sunrisers reversed the tide of the match with 47 runs in the 18th and 19th overs. Before the final over, ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster showed Sunrisers as 81.95% favorites, despite KKR being favored by 99.27% because to the 12-ball onslaught. But one ball after hitting his ninth six, Klaasen was dismissed by Harshit, deflating Sunrisers and allowing KKR to win the match.
Sunrisers got off to the sort of start they needed to chase 209, a score that, if successful, would have been the fourth-highest chase in IPL history, thanks to twin 32s from openers Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma. However, they were both dismissed in the sixth and eighth overs by Russell’s and Harshit’s short balls, respectively. Around that time, in the seventh over, Shreyas Iyer moved to Narine, following the conclusion of the powerplay.
In order to silence Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram, Narine bowled steadily over a fair period of time and with turn in both directions. He gave up just two runs in his opening over and almost had Tripathi out in his second over, the ninth, when the batsman misplayed a slog sweep. However, Varun Chakravarthy’s missed opportunity granted Tripathi a second shot at life.
In the eleventh over, Narine trapped Tripathi leg before wicket, giving him a third chance at life. However, the umpire rejected the appeal, and KKR chose not to investigate it.
Tripathi had a rare exhibition of passion when he was ultimately removed by Narine in the 17th over, bowling him out for just rewards for his session. He was caught at deep square leg in the last ball of his delivery. In a stretch of 1 for 19, Narine concluded with eight dots and zero boundaries.
Narine, who had been promoted to open again, was cheaply run out early in the KKR innings, which had started disastrously. Then, with KKR at 32 for 3, T Natarajan removed Venkatesh Iyer (7) and Shreyas (0) in the same over.
Following a hat-trick of sixes off Marco Jansen to begin his innings, that pushed Salt to temper his shot-making. When Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled in the fourth stump channel during the powerplay, the KKR hitters, including Salt, found it difficult. By the eighth over, they were 51 for 4, when Nitish Rana reverse-swept Mayank Markande to backward point.
But Salt found a counterattacking companion in Ramandeep No. 6. Ramandeep showed no fear in the face of Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins and Jansen’s short-ball assault. In the ninth and eleventh overs, he took both bowlers for sixes, and he started the 12th over with an inside-out six against Shahbaz Ahmed. After making a 17-ball 35 against Cummins, he was finally caught at cover by a diving Markande, but more significantly, he made sure the KKR innings did not stall in the middle overs.
After eventually reaching his third IPL fifty in the 14th over thanks to a bowling spell from Markande, Salt appeared dissatisfied when he was bowled out for 54 in the same over. But in only 6.2 overs, KKR rallied from 51 for 4 to 119 for 6, providing Russell and Rinku Singh with enough of a foundation to exploit.
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