The owner of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SSR) went through a rollercoaster of emotions during his team’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 23.
Kolkata Knight Riders were invited to bat first in the match by SRH captain Pat Cummins and did a fantastic job after losing four quick wickets. Andre Russell and Phil Salt scored fantastic fifties, while Ramandeep Singh and Rinku Singh chipped in with crucial runs to help their team post an incredible total of 208/7 on the board, which at one point seemed impossible.
Chasing the target, SRH batsmen contributed significant runs but the most important innings was played by Heinrich Klaasen who smashed a spectacular half-century and smoked Mitchell Starc in the 19th over to take his team close to the finish line.
In the last over, SRH needed just 13 runs with Harshit Rana bowling and Heinrich Klaasen smashed a six off the first ball of the over. Seeing the South African batsman’s huge knock, SRH owner Kavya Maran burst into joy and went crazy celebrating her. However, her celebration did not last long as SRH lost 2 wickets in the next four deliveries including the dismissal of Klaasen.
On the fifth ball of the over, Klaasen tried to smash a pace delivery with power but got an edge and Suyash Sharma ran back from the short third to produce an exceptional catch in a pressure situation.
Heinrich Klaasen was dismissed for 63 runs off 29 balls and seeing his dismissal, Kavya Maran was extremely dejected. Meanwhile, on the last ball, SRH did not get any runs and KKR won the thriller by 4 runs to start their campaign on a high.
Watch: Kavya Maran’s emotional rollercoaster as Suyash Sharma goes blind to fire Heinrich Klaasen
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Speaking after the match, SRH captain Pat Cummins said the match between the two teams was wonderful but he was not happy to end up on the losing side. He also praised Andre Russell for his incredible batting and stated that bowling for all-rounders is quite difficult. He elaborated:
“Close game, in the end, a wonderful game of cricket. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out the way we wanted. I thought for the most part, very happy with the way we bowled. Obviously, Dre Russ ultimately does what Dre Russ does, he’s pretty hard to contain. Overall, I think we did a pretty good job. You do your planning, you try to execute as best you can, but he’s a pretty tough guy to bowl to, he hits some good shots, a couple of balls, maybe we could have bowled a little bit differently, but the hardest job in the cricket is bowling someone like that in the end.”
Pat Cummins credited the tackles played by Heinrich Klaasen and Shahbaz Ahmed that helped them get back into the match. He said:
“It’s one of those, one way or another, an incredible job by Klaas (Klaasen) and Shahbaz to get us back in the game and put us in that position. Who would have thought we would be so close? Unfortunately, too much. In a game in which we didn’t do everything well, we almost competed against a very good team in their stadium, with many reasons to cheer us up, many good players and a couple of points to work on as well. Happy with howThe launch went well.”