- Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs
- KKR: 187/6 (Nitish Rana: 80, Rahul Tripathi 53; Rashid Khan 2/24)
- Sunrisers Hyderabad: 177/5 (Manish Pandey 61*, Jonny Bairstow 55; Prasidh Krishna 2/3)
Manish Pandey (61 not out) and Jonny Bairstow's (55) half centuries could not get Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) over the line as they were beaten by 10 runs by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday night in Chennai.
After being put into bat first by David Warner, KKR were propelled to 187/6 in their 20 overs thanks to Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi's (53) knocks.
In reply, SRH were restricted to 177/5 with Prasidh Krishna taking two wickets for 35 runs. Shakib-al-Hasan, Andre Russell and Pat Cummins were the other three bowlers to pick a wicket.
The SRH innings started with captain David Warner being dropped at point, off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh, who was playing his first competitive match since the 2019 IPL. The over ended with Wriddhiman Saha hitting a six but Warner fell in the next over to Krishna, after scoring three runs.
Saha then fell off the very first ball of the third over bowled by Shakib Al Hasan.
Bairstow and Pandey then got SRH on track with a 92-run partnership for the third wicket which came off just 67 balls.
However, KKR tightened the noose after the 13th over in which Bairstow fell to Pat Cummins. While Abdul Samad gave hope to the 2016 champions with two sixes in the 19th over, SRH needed 16 runs off the last six balls to win the match.
Andre Russell bowled the last over and conceded just five runs off five balls to take KKR over the line.
Earlier, SRH took five wickets in the last five overs and conceded just 42 runs but could only restrict KKR to 187/6.
KKR looked set for a total well above the 200-run mark when their top order batsmen Nitish Rana (80), Rahul Tripathi (53) and Shubman Gill (15) took on the SRH bowlers. However, SRH's Afghanistan duo Rashid Khan (2/24) and Mohammad Nabi (2/32) led the way in the death overs.
Rana and Gill put up a 53-run opening partnership off 42 balls before the latter fell to Rashid. However, Rahul Tripathi then came in and scored a belligerent 53 off 29 balls, smashing five fours and two sixes. Tripathi put up 93 runs off just 50 balls for the second wicket with Rana.
Tripathi eventually fell to T Natarajan and with the team cruising at 146/2 in the 16th over, KKR sent in Andre Russell ahead of Shakib Al Hasan. However, Russell ended up falling for just five runs off as many balls to Rashid after which Nabi dismissed Rana and KKR captain Eoin Morgan off consecutive deliveries in the 18th over.
Dinesh Karthik then scored 22 runs off nine balls to get KKR close to the 190-run mark while Shakib fell to Bhuvneshwar Kumar off the last ball of the innings.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)