Andre Russell hit an unbeaten 64 and took two wickets to trump Heinrich Klaasen’s batting blitz of 63 as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by four runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday
Russell steered Kolkata to 208/7 with his 25-ball knock and an 81-run stand with Rinku Singh after England’s Phil Salt began the charge with his 54 off 40 deliveries.
Salt, who went unsold at the auction only to be named as a replacement for Jason Roy at KKR, got to his third IPL fifty in just 38 balls before being dismissed.
At the post match press conference, Salt was in awe of the power-hitting of teammate ‘Dre Russ’, someone he has played with in the past in other competitions.
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Four wickets in quick succession meant Salt was out with fellow debutant Ramandeep Singh just after the Powerplay overs. The Englishman was ably supported by Ramandeep who himself proved his worth with the bat in an entertaining 54-run partnership.
Ramandeep even hit Pat Cummins for a four and then pulled a short one for a six in the same over but the SRH skipper returned to end his six-hitting spree at 17-ball 35.
The partnership though set the tone for the final assault by Russell and Rinku.
‘Hell of a Cameo’
“I’ve played with Dre in 100 He’s a phenomenal ball striker the best in the world on this day. You know, make no bones about it. So to see him do what he did, obviously it’s incredible love watching it, but you know, it’s no surprise to me and I don’t think is a surprise to anybody in the ground is when he’s on his incredible,” Salt said at the post match press conference.
“Yeah, well, you know what I said to the previous two batter is that we’ll take it to the eighth over. Then another wicked fall and then we’ll take it to the 10th. And then I said the same to Ramandeep. I said we’ll take it to the 12th and we’ll reassess there. You know, I think he was really smart the way he played. It took the pressure off me to hit the boundaries. He came in, had a hell of a cameo. And, you know, started putting a partnership together, you know, when wickets have falling, it’s all about making those partnerships and fame to come on debut and do that as is very impressive,” he added.
When asked about his own batting and if the team losing wickets at the other end led him to play one of his slowest T20 innings, Salt said it was more to do with finding the right time for Rinku and Russell to come out.
“To be honest in the game, you do what you have to do. Wickets before then, you know we’ve got Rinku and Dre Down down the order. And they’re incredible strikers of the ball and are match winners. So I think in my mind it was about not exposing them and really giving them you know the best entry point possible into the game. You know which we did,” Salt said.
“At the end of the day, it’s about doing your job for the team and playing as you see fit, you know if we were none down I would have gone harder. But because we’d lost so many, you know I just had to rein myself in,” he added.
KKR pacer Harshit Rana held his nerve to defend 13 in the final over of SRH chase after getting hit for a six on the first ball.
“The game seesawed and all the way through their bag innings. We had a few chances in the batting innings, we didn’t take in the field and it looked like at one point, you know getting into towards the final overs. Harshit held his nerve unbelievably well and I think we defended what was a pretty good score,” Salt said.
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