IPL 2022, SRH vs KKR | Rana and Russell propel Knight Riders to 175/8

Nitish Rana and Andre Russell’s assault in the latter half brought parity to Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings. Still, the damage done by the Sunrisers Hyderabad pace quartet was too much for the Knight Riders to race away to a gargantuan total at the Cricket Club of India’s Brabourne Stadium.

Despite Rana and Russell’s calculated risks resulting in 105 runs being added in the latter half, the Knight Riders tallied 175 for eight on Friday night. The innings belonged to four different pacers who left their mark for Sunrisers.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen started the innings on a perfect note, giving little room to Venkatesh Iyer and Aaron Finch, who became the first cricketer to play for nine IPL teams, at the start.

T. Natarajan and Umran Malik then carried on the good work to not only make run-scoring difficult but also strike regularly. The pick of the night was Malik, the Jammu & Kashmir Express. Clocking consistently in the mid- and high-140s, Malik even crossed the 150 kph mark in a fiery burst of pace bowling.

Besides, he bowled in the perfect channel to rattle Knight Riders’ captain Shreyas Iyer. Playing and missing consistently in Malik’s first two overs, Shreyas finally tried to make room outside leg only to see a yorker crashing into the stumps.

Rana played the pacers with relative ease. At 70 for four at the halfway mark, with Shreyas having been dismissed, Rana and Sheldon Jackson, returning to the side, had no option to target Malik after he changed ends in the 13th over.

While both timed a six each – Rana to third-man while Sheldon pulling one to perfection – Malik had the last laugh getting Sheldon to top-edge one to Natarajan in the deep.

Russell then lived up to the reputation and played the perfect accelerator. The duo kept on pressing the accelerator, adding 35 runs in the next four overs.

At 138 for five, and J. Suchith, the left-arm spinner who replaced Washington Sundar, set to bowl one of the last three overs, the stage was set for the two Rs to finish with a flurry. But Natarajan, who had struck twice in his opening over, got Rana to nick to the keeper.

With Pat Cummins and debutant Aman Khan being unable to time the big hits or rotate strike, Russell had to wait for the last three balls of the innings to go after Suchith. Had he not amassed 16 off those, the Knight Riders would have fallen way short of the par score.

Scoreboard:

Kolkata Knight Riders Innings: Venkatesh Iyer b T Natarajan 6 Aaron Finch c Pooran b Marco Jansen 7 Shreyas Iyer b Umran Malik 28 Sunil Narine c Shashank Singh b T Natarajan 6 Nitish Rana c Pooran b T Natarajan 54 Sheldon Jackson c T Natarajan b Umran Malik 7 Andre Russell not out 49 Pat Cummins c Marco Jansen b Bhuvneshwar 3 Aman Khan b J Suchith 5 Umesh Yadav not out 1

Extras: (B-2, LB-4, W-3) 9

Total: (8 wickets in 20 Overs) 175

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-25, 3-31, 4-70, 5-103, 6-142, 7-153, 8-158.

Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-37-1, Marco Jansen 4-0-26-1, T Natarajan 4-0-37-3, Umran Malik 4-0-27-2, Shashank Singh 1-0-10-0, Jagadeesha Suchith 3-0-32-1.