In match number 45, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) hosted Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. It was an upset match as the last time these two teams met at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, SRH had won. However, this time Ajinkya Rahane’s team overpowered the Orange Army and won by 7 wickets.
SRH won the toss and decided to bat first. The home team made a few changes, with Harshal Patel and Smaran Ravichandran replacing Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harsh Dubey. KKR also made two changes, with Tim Seifert and Ramandeep Singh replacing Finn Allen and Manish Pandey.
Travis Head performed tremendously against KKR
SRH’s openers, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head got off to a great start, with the former being dismissed by Kartik Tyagi for 15 runs. But Head continued his aggressive batting and scored 61 runs in 28 balls. While he and Ishan Kishan were batting, SRH were leading the game.
However, the former was dismissed, and then a flurry of wickets followed as KKR spinners Varun Chakravarthy took three wickets for just 7 runs in his last two overs and turned the game around.
Sunil Narine took two wickets in his final overs, one of which was the dangerous Ishan Kishan, who returned with 42 runs. After this wicket, SRH’s batting order faltered and they lost 8 wickets for just 60 runs. KKR bowlers made a comeback and bundled out SRH for 165 runs for the first time in this IPL.
KKR scored a hat-trick of victory
Finn Allen, who came to chase the target, gave a fast start to KKR in the power play, he scored 29 runs in 13 balls and scored 22 runs against Pat Cummins. After that, Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi stitched a half-century partnership between the two in just 32 balls and continued the run of runs as the latter brought up his half-century in 39 balls.
The captain was out on 43, and then Raghuvanshi, also trying to finish the game early, came back after scoring 59 and then Rinku Singh’s short innings of 22 off 11 balls helped Ajinkya Rahane’s team make a hat-trick of wins in the IPL and wrap up the game with 10 balls to spare.
The way we made a comeback with the ball – Ajinkya Rahane
After the win, Ajinkya Rahane said, “Very good game. The way we came back with the ball. It looked like they would get 190-200. It was a good wicket to bat on. Chasing 190-200 would have been challenging. But credit to our bowling unit, especially the spinners. They kept taking wickets. Those little moments are really important, very happy with the win.”
“The bowling unit has been performing really well in the last 5-6 matches. Credit to our bowling coaches – Bravo and Southee. During the practice sessions, a lot of talking, a lot of planning, different opposition, different grounds. It’s all about planning and executing it.”
“Here and there you will go for runs, but as long as you are clear in your mind, it is important. That win was important before the break. Had 2-3 practice sessions. It is all about being mentally fresh,” Ajinkya Rahane concluded.
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