Nitish Rana scored a brilliant 40 opening the batting for Kolkata Knight Riders in their season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad. This was the sixth time he opened the batting for KKR and has scored three fifties. In the other three innings, he scored ducks as it was all or nothing for the Delhi boy. Kolkata Knight Riders were put into bat after David Warner won the toss and chose to field first.
Nitish Rana first added a 53-run stand with Shubman Gill for the first wicket and then 93 with Rahul Tripathi (53 off 29). KKR then lost two quick wickets in the form of Tripathi and Andre Russell as Rashid Khan accounted for the big wicket of the big-hitting West Indian.
Meanwhile, Twitter was all-praise for the southpaw who scored 80 off 56 balls and triggered the KKR innings all the way through.
Meanwhile, KKR lost key wickets in the final phase of their innings to stifle the run-scoring. They lost Russell and Eoin Morgan in quick succession to bring Sunrisers back into the game. RCB chased down 160 to win the season opener in Chennai despite batting becoming difficult in the second half.
Meanwhile, in the mid-innings break Rahul Tripathi said that KKR scored a decent enough toal to defend with quality bowlers in the side. KKR have Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Shakib Al Hasan and Varun Chakravarty in their ranks and should be able to defend the target.
The surface was holding a little bit. Their spinners were bowling well. I think the surface is a little tricky because the odd ball is turning and sometimes skidding. I think we’ve got a great total. That was the role given to me today, just go out and express myself. Good length areas, use the wicket a lot, some cutters and I think we’ll be able to defend it. If you get in the right areas then it was difficult to score. Whatever loose ball we got we were looking to utilise the most. It’s our first game let’s see (about the dew). Even if the dew comes we’ve got a great total” said Tripathi
Twitter Salutes Nitish Rana’s Attacking 80 vs SRH
Nitish Rana last six innings in IPL:
0
81
0
87
0
50* — TodayCool, calm, composed .. 37 balls | 8 fours | 1 six #IPL2021 #SRHvKKR pic.twitter.com/wWUlGhTcI9
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) April 11, 2021
Nitish Rana last six innings in IPL
0(1)
81(53)
0(1)
87(61)
0(1)
80(56)Get him out the first ball or suffer.#SRHvKKR #IPL2021 #KKR
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) April 11, 2021
Top innings from Nitish Rana. As the innings stumbles, the value will become more apparent. The problem with bottom loading a team is that the big hitters don't always get the time to play themselves in.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 11, 2021
This man deserved a 3 f̶i̶n̶g̶e̶r̶ figure score tonight!
Send in 💜💜💜 for Nitish Rana.#SRHvKKR #IndiaKaApnaMantra #KKR #VIVOIPL #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/Iqs0zCXqR6
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) April 11, 2021
Players from Delhi has intent, aggressiveness and class also, We have examples like Gambhir, Virat and Nitish Rana. Today he might hit the first hundred of the season.#Rana
— The Critical (@thenileshkolage) April 11, 2021
Great innings from Nitish Rana comes to an end, he scored 80 runs in 56 balls. He played beautifully tonight against SRH bowlers.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 11, 2021
Nitish Rana played a ripper innings! 80 off 56. Some beautiful striking. Makes it worth the midnight wake up. 😂 #SRHvKKR #IPL2021
— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) April 11, 2021
