In the 47th IPL match where the Visitors KKR set a target of 172 runs against SRH while batting first. In response to this, The Hosts’ players could manage only 166 runs and lost the match by 5 runs.
KKR’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy was the star of the match for the 2-time IPL Champions. 29-year-old mystery spinner saved the match with his deadly bowling as he scalped 1 wicket for just 3 runs in the last over when SRH needed 9 runs in the last over. With this win, KKR got the 4th win of the season in the 16th edition of this league.
Batting first, KKR scored 171 runs in 20 overs with the loss of 9 wickets. SRH needed 9 runs to win in the last 6 balls. The KKR captain handed over the last to Varun. At this time Hyderabad player Abdul Samad was on strike. He took a single on the first ball. After this, Bhuvneshwar Kumar took a leg bye on the second ball. Varun dismissed Samad on the third ball. Samad was dismissed after scoring 21 runs in 18 balls. The fourth ball was a dot. Single was taken on the fifth ball. The sixth ball was also a dot. In this way, Kolkata won by 5 runs.
KKR beats SRH
Significantly, for KKR, Rinku Singh scored 46 runs in 35 balls. Nitish Rana scored 42 runs. Chasing the target given by KKR, the Hyderabad team could only manage 166 runs in 20 overs with the loss of 8 wickets. Adien Markram scored an inning of 41 runs for Hyderabad.
Klaasen contributed 36 runs. During this Kolkata bowler, Varun took 1 wicket for 20 runs in 4 overs. Vaibhav Arora and Shardul Thakur took 2-2 wickets. Anukul Roy, Andre Russell and Nitish Rana also got one wicket each.
After the match, Nitish Rana told how he made a comeback in the match and how he gambled with his bowlers and was successful in it. Nitish said, “In the middle, we bowled some loose overs and gambled with Shardul and Vaibhav and they were able to get both the set batsmen out and thus we came back in this match. We had to get him out because if he had batted till the end, the match would have been out of reach for us.”
The KKR captain further explained how he trusted the spinners and backed them. He also told how he picks the bowler and gets him back on the bowling. KKR captain Nitish Rana told, “I was in doubt that with whom I should go spinner or pacer, I supported my spinner to do this work. I always see who is the best spinner in the game and that’s how I decide who to bring back on that day.”