KKR registered their 100th IPL win as they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs in their 2021 campaign opener. It was a cumulative effort by the bowlers to negate a good turnaround from Hyderabad batsmen after the early loss of their skipper David Warner. The win takes Kolkata Knight Riders to the second position in the points table with a net run-rate of +0.500. More about match 3 report in detail below.
Sunrisers Hyderabad put out a fighting performance with the bat but still was not able to cross the line. They lost skipper Warner early in the chase of 188. Coming into bat at number three Manish Pandey scored an unbeaten 61. Along with Jonny Bairstow (55) the duo added a 92 run stand for the third wicket. From 102 for 3 to 150 for 6 Sunrisers lost three quick wickets. With 38 required off the final two overs, Abdul Samad struck some lusty blows scoring 19 off 8 balls. Mohammed Nabi (14 off 11) and Vijay Shankar (11 off 7) scored quick runs but Samad’s late cameo was not enough to help Sunrisers win the contest.
Prasidh Krishna dismissed Warner in the second over of the chase. Shakib Al Hasan then struck on the very first ball on his KKR return. Pat Cummins then took the key wicket of Bairstow in the 13th over of the chase. This meant that Sunrisers were always behind the asking rate. Finally, despite the best efforts of Pandey and Samad, the side fell short by 10 runs.
Dew was expected to play a part in the game, but it did not have an impact on the game as batting became a lot easier when Pandey and Bairstow were batting.
Rana, Tripathi Help KKR Make Winning Start
Earlier in the game, Warner won the toss and asked KKR to bat first. Nitish Rana scored 80 off 56 deliveries and added key partnerships first with Shubman Gill (15) and then with Rahul Tripathi (53). Dinesh Karthik scored 22 off 9 in the final overs as KKR reached a more than competitive 187/6. Andre Russell scored five on his comeback game for KKR and fell yet again to Rashid Khan. Skipper Eoin Morgan scored (2), while Shakib scored 3. It was Rana’s third score of 80 or above in his last six innings for Kolkata. He was rightly awarded the Man of The Match for his matchwinning knock.
Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi picked two wickets each, while lead pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked one. After beating SRH in their first IPL 2021 game, KKR face Mumbai Indians in their next game on Tuesday (April 13).
Kolkata Knight Riders 187 for 6 (Rana 80, Tripathi 53, Rashid 2-24) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 177 for 5 (Pandey 61*, Bairstow 55, Krishna 2-35) by 10 runs