KKR defeated SRH by 10 runs in their IPL 2021 opener.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) faced each other in the third game of IPL 2021 at Chepauk on Sunday (April 11).
Invited to bat first, KKR posted 187/6 in 20 overs on the back of Nitish Rana’s 56-ball 80. Rahul Tripathi (53 off 29 balls) and Dinesh Karthik (22* off 9 balls) also made significant contributions with the bat.
For SRH, Rashid Khan was the pick of the bowlers, claiming 2 wickets by conceding 24 runs in his four overs. Mohammad Nabi also chipped in with a couple of scalps by giving away 32 runs.
In reply, Sunrisers lost both the openers, Wriddhiman Saha (7) and David Warner (3), cheaply. The pair of Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow added 92 runs for the third wicket to bail the team out of trouble.
Pat Cummins broke the partnership by removing Bairstow (55 off 44 balls) and SRH’s innings lost the plot thereafter. While Pandey held the one end firmly, he couldn’t keep the required run-rate in check.
Despite some lusty blows from Abdul Samad (19* off 8 balls) in the death overs, SRH fell 10 runs short of the target.
After the game, former India opener Virender Sehwag took a dig at the approach of Manish Pandey, who remained unbeaten on 61 off 44 balls but couldn’t take his team over the line.
“Teams that will have stat padding batsmen end up batting long overs without changing gears quickly will struggle. Depriving hitters and finishers by leaving very less balls and making it very difficult. Happened last year, and such teams will struggle always,” Sehwag tweeted.
Prasidh Krishna (2-35), Shakib-Al-Hasan (1-34), Pat Cummins (1-30) and Andre Russell (1-32) were among the wickets for KKR.