In the 45th match, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) hosted Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. It was a reverse match as SRH won the last time these two teams met at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. However, this time, Ajinkya Rahane’s team outclassed the Orange Army as they won by 7 wickets.
SRH won the toss and elected to bat first. The home team made a couple of changes, Harshal Patel and Smaran Ravichandran, and for them, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harsh Dubey made way. KKR also made two changes, with Tim Seifert and Ramandeep Singh making way for Finn Allen and Manish Pandey.
Travis Head was a massacre against KKR
SRH openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head got off to a good start, with the former being dismissed by Kartik Tyagi for 15 runs. But Head continued his batting massacre and scored 61 off 28 deliveries. While he and Ishan Kishan were batting, SRH were flying in the game.
However, the first one was dismissed, and then there was a flurry of wickets as KKR spinners Varun Chakravarthy picked three wickets in their last two overs, providing just 7 runs, and changed the course of the game.
Sunil Narine picked two wickets in his last overs, one of which was the dangerous Ishan Kishan, who returned after scoring 42 runs. After the wicket, SRH’s batting order crumbled as they lost 8 wickets for just 60 runs. KKR bowlers came back and combined SRH for the first time in this IPL for 165 runs.
KKR achieves hat-trick of wins
Coming out in pursuit, it was Finn Allen who gave KKR a blistering start in the powerplay, scoring 29 off 13 deliveries and smashing 22 runs off Pat Cummins. After that, Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi formed a fifty partnership between the two in just 32 balls and kept the runs going as the latter scored his fifty in 39 balls.
The captain was dismissed for 43 runs, and then Raghuvanshi, who was also trying to end the game early, returned after scoring 59 runs, and then Rinku Singh’s small innings of 22 off 11 deliveries helped Ajinkya Rahane’s team achieve a hat-trick of IPL wins as they finished the game with 10 balls to spare.
The way we came back with the ball- Ajinkya Rahane
Ajinkya Rahane, after the win, said: “Very good game. The way we came back with the ball. It looked like they would get 190-200. It was a good wicket to bat on. 190-200 would have been a challenge to chase. But you have to give credit to our bowling unit, especially the spinners. They kept taking wickets. Those little moments are really important, I am very happy with the win.”
“The bowling unit has done very well in the last 5-6 games. Thanks to our bowling coaches – Bravo and Southee. During the practice sessions, there was a lot of talking, a lot of planning, different oppositions, different wickets. It’s all about planning and executing.”
Ajinkya Rahane concluded by saying: “Here and there you will go for a run, but as long as you have a clear head, that’s important. That win was important before the break. I had 2-3 practice sessions. It’s about being mentally fresh.
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