Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh’s fifties went in vain this time for Kolkata Knight Riders as centurion Harry Brook helped Sunrisers Hyderabad claim a 23-run victory on Friday at Eden Gardens. It was not KKR’s night as despite two fantastic knocks from Rana (75 off 41 balls) and Rinku (58* off 31 balls), they failed to chase down the mammoth 229-run target. 32 runs were required in the last over and some fans were hoping to witness another miraculous show from Rinku but it didn’t happen this time as Umran Malik managed to defend it well.
Chasing the mammoth 229-run target, KKR lost their opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a duck on the third ball of Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s first over. Venkatesh Iyer was once again picked as the Impact Player but he failed to replicate his heroics from the last match and was dismissed for 10 by Jansen. After two early wickets, KKR decided to tinker the batting order as Sunil Narine was promoted at number 4 but he was dismissed on the first ball for a golden duck by Jansen.
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Skipper Rana joined Narayan Jagadeesan in the middle to revive the KKR innings and he managed to give them a major boost by smashing Umran Malik for 28 runs on his first over of the match. It was the final over of the powerplay and Umran started it with a short ball and Rana pulled it but managed to get an edge which was enough to collect a four. The Jammu and Kashmir pacer continued to bowl short and Rana was ready for it as he smashed the second ball for a maximum over mid-wicket. The young paceman didn’t learn from his mistakes and continued to bowl short as the KKR captain hit the next three short balls for boundaries. While the last ball which was clocked at 149.1 kmph flew over backward point for a six.
Rana and Jagadeesan shared a 62-run stand to revive the KKR’s chase but Sunrisers Hyderabad bounced back again by dismissing the KKR opener and Andre Russell in quick succession. It was another flop show with the bat for Russell as he was dismissed for 3 by Mayank Markande who also dismissed Jagadeesan for 36.
After back-to-back setbacks, the hero from KKR’s last match Rinku entered the middle and gave hope to KKR fans once again of a miraculous victory. He shared a 69-run stand with skipper Rana who was dismissed in the 17th over by T Natrajan. Rana’s 75-run knock was laced with five fours and six sixes.
Rinku fought hard with a 27-ball half-century but the equation in the final over was tougher than the last match as KKR required 32 runs off it. Shardul Thakur (12) got dismissed on the first ball of Umran’s final over which almost silenced the crowd at Eden Gardens.
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Earlier, it was a classy knock from Brook as his 55-ball 100-run* knock was laced with 12 fours and three sixes as he ripped apart the KKR bowling attack. He started his innings with a bang by hitting Umesh Yadav for a boundary and he continued attacking the KKR bowlers in the powerplay. The 24-year-old slowed down a bit when the spinners came into the fray but put his foot back on the accelerator at the right time to become the first centurion of the season.
Bought by SRH for a whopping Rs 13.25 crore, Brook had managed only 29 in first three games but found his rhythm and became the first centurion of IPL 2023.
KKR fielding was also a big letdown as Skipper Aiden Markram also played an impactful innings in the middle when he raced to a 26-ball fifty as the duo stitched together 72 runs from 47 balls.
After Markram’s departure, young left-handed batter Abhishek Sharma (32; 17b) gave a fine support to Brook as the duo also added 72 runs (33b) to pile on KKR’s misery.
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