Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) by a margin of 10 runs to open their account in just the first game of the IPL 2021 tournament. This must be a morale-boosting victory for KKR who went on to win the game even though one of the main batters of SRH – Manish Pandey – remained unbeaten in his unsuccessful chase!
Having opted to bowl first, SRH failed to put pressure on KKR’s batting line-up. A 52-run stand for the first wicket and a 93-run stand for the second wicket helped KKR put on a solid foundation for the death overs! Nitish Rana (80 off 56) and Rahul Tripathi (53 off 29) both scored half-centuries each. Dinesh Karthik (22* off 9 balls, 2 fours, 1 six) played a little cameo in the end and that helped KKR end their innings with a total of 187/6 in 20 overs.
Among SRH bowlers, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi picked up 2 wickets each while T Natarajan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar accounted for a wicket each. Meanwhile, Bhuvi had a rough day with the ball as he conceded 45 runs at an economy rate of 11.2 from his 4 overs. Sandeep Sharma was wicketless and had conceded 35 runs from his 3 overs without a wicket.
During the chase, SRH lost both their openers early with just 10 runs on the board. However, the fifties each from Jonny Bairstow (55 off 40) and Manish Pandey (61* off 44) stabilized SRH’s innings for a while during the middle over. However, they were pushed on to backfoot with the wicket of Bairstow. Pandey’s presence at the crease did not have much effect on the scoring rate. Even Abdul Samad’s unbeaten 19* off 8 balls couldn’t take them home in the end!
Manish faced 44 deliveries for his 61 runs and that innings helped KKR bag a comfortable victory in this game. Eventually, SRH lost this game by a 10-run margin and they still had 5 wickets left in this unsuccessful chase. Among KKR bowlers, Prasidh Krishna bagged 2 wickets while Shakib al Hasan, Pat Cummins and Andre Russell bagged a wicket each. Cummins who conceded 30 runs from his 4 overs is the most economical bowler for KKR in this match.
KKR opener Nitish Rana who scored a half-century that helped them get to a competitive total has been adjudged as the Player of the Match. KKR will play their next game on Tuesday (Apr 13) against Mumbai Indians while SRH will take on their arch-rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday (Apr 14). Both these games will be played in Chennai.
Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders – 187/6 in 20 overs (Nitish Rana – 80, Rahul Tripathi – 53, Rashid Khan – 2/24, Mohammad Nabi – 2/32) defeated Sun Risers Hyderabad – 177/5 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey – 61, Jonny Bairstow – 55, Prasidh Krishna – 2/35, Pat Cummins – 1/30) by a margin of 10 runs
Toss: Sun Risers Hyderabad won the toss and opted to bowl first
Teams:
Sun Risers Hyderabad (Playing XI): David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
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