IPL 2021 Match 3: Rana, Rahul star as KKR start with a win over SRH
KKR. ©IPL/Twitter
|| India Correspondent ||
The third match of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was no less thrilling as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took on SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Chennai and KKR started their tournament with a convincing 10 runs win.
SRH won the toss and chose to field first. But their decision backfired as Nitish Rana got off to a boundary on the very first ball of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He didn't stop as he punished Sandeep Sharma for two more in the next over too. However, he got a life on 12 in the 3rd over and SRH had to bear the brunt.
While Rana took the charge with smashed three successive boundaries off Sharma, Shubman Gill played the second fiddle where he smacked a huge six off T Natarajan and earned the praise from everyone. However, their onslaught took them to 50runsinside the powerplay.
But Gill couldn't contribute much as Rashid Khan's googly uprooted his stump, although that didn't stop KKR batsmen from scoring at a great pace as Rahul Tripathi didn't waste time to smash from the beginning. He smashed Nabi a long-off for six in his very first over. Rana brought up his fifty off 37 balls which came on the back of a six over deep backward square leg.
Both Rana and Rahul scored so fast that KKR reached the three-mark figure in the 12th over. However, they scored 19 runs in the 15th over and Rahul brought up his fifty in style with 28 balls. Just when he was looking more dangerous Natarajan removed him with an off-cutter.
Rana too got to for a blistering knock of 80 off 56 with 9 fours and 4 sixes. They lost a few more wickets in between before the former captain Dinesh Karthik held the fort at one end and his quick cameo of 22* off 9 helped KKR put up a decent competitive total of 187 runs for 6 in 20 overs.
While chasing, SRH didn't have a flying start as captain David Warner fell for a mere 3. Soon Wriddhiman Saha too got out for 7. The onus fell upon the middle order as Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow started to resurrect the innings. They took time to settle in the middle as Manish hit a boundary and six in the 5th over off his former SRH teammate Shakib Al Hasan and managed only 35 runs inside the powerplay.
However, Pandey once again took on Shakib for a six and Bairstow went berserk as he took on Andre Russell for 15 runs in the 8th over. Their onslaught took the team to 100in the 12th over and Bairstow smashed a 32-ball fifty as well. But he couldn't trouble KKR as Pat Cummins sent him in for 55.
Meanwhile, Manish Pandey anchored the chase with timely boundaries and singles, scoring a 37-ball 50 as well. However, after Vijay Shankar's dismissal, Abdul Samad came at the crease and smashed two sixes and changed the equation to 22 runs needed off 6 balls. But their efforts went in vain as KKR sealed the deal with ease.
