CRICKET
Nitish Rana powers KKR to victory
In the 3rd match of IPL 2021, Kolkata Knight Riders were up against the Sunrises Hyderabad.
In a keenly contested match, KKR won the match by 10 runs after posting a score of 187.
SRH won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Things looked favourable for David Warner’s side due to the home conditions.
Kolkata had a decent start but they soon lost young star Shubman Gill who was bowled by Rashid Khan for 15 off 13 balls.
That’s when the KKR innings picked up steam.
Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi got the better of bowlers. They both made half centuries with a superb partnership of 93 runs. This took KKR to 145-1 in 15 overs.
Nitish Rana made a brilliant 80 runs with 4 sixes and 9 fours in just 56 balls.
Rahul Tripathi too scored a fantastic half century.
However, big names like Morgan and Russell failed to come good on a slow and difficult batting pitch.
Thankfully, Dinesh Karthik smashed 22 runs off 9 balls that took the former champions to 187-6 in their 20 overs.
The SRH bowlers made a nice comeback in the last few overs and managed to restrict KKR to under 200.
Afghanistan duo Nabi and Rashid Khan got 2 wickets each in their four overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Natarajan took 1 wicket each.
SRH top order fails
The home sided needed to chase the target of 188 against the world class KKR bowling attack.
Captain Warner got a lifeline after he was dropped on Harbhajan Singh’s bowling.
However, he failed to make the most of it. Things went terribly wrong when Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their openers cheaply.
Warner left the crease after scoring only 3 runs and Saha scored 7 runs with 1 six.
Suddenly, Hyderabad was down 10 for 2 in the first 2 overs.
Then, the English sensation Jonny Bairstow and Young Manish Pandey played brilliantly.
Both scored half centuries and the required run rate started to come down. Pandey made an unbeaten 61 off 44 balls with 3 sixes and 2 fours.
Jonny Bairstow made 55 off 40 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes.
At this point, SRH was on top and they were the favorites to win.
However, KKR bowlers stood up when it mattered. The slide started when Pat Cummins got rid of Bairstow in the 12th over.
Mohammad Nabi managed to score only 14 runs with 2 fours.
Prasidh Krishna took 2 wickets in his 4 overs.
Pat Cummins, Shakib Al Hasan and Andre Russell all took 1 wicket each in their 4 overs.
In the end, KKR won the match with 10 runs and made a winning start to their 2021 IPL edition.
Scorecard:
Kolkata Knight Riders 187 for 6 (Rana 80, Tripathi 53, Rashid 2-24) defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad 177 for 5 (Pandey 61*, Bairstow 55, Krishna 2-35) by 10 runs