Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opened their IPL 2024 campaign with a tense 4-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday (March 23).
Asked to bat first, KKR racked up a massive 208/7 in 20 overs on the back of Andre Russell (64* off 25 balls) and Philip Salt (54 off 40 balls).
Chasing the target, the Sunrisers were struggling at 145/5 in the 17th over. However, Heinrich Klaasen produced a scintillating 25-ball half-century to keep SRH in the hunt. In fact, Klaasen and Shahbaz Ahmed smashed Mitchell Starc for 26 runs in the penultimate over to make the equation – 13 runs off 6 balls.
In the final over, Klaasen slammed Harshit Rana’s first delivery for a six but the KKR pacer bounced back from the second delivery onwards to take his team over the line. Rana’s second delivery went for a single while he dismissed Shahbaz in the following ball. The fourth ball again went for a single and then he got the prized scalp of Klaasen (63 off 29 balls) in the penultimate delivery.
SRH needed 5 off the final ball and Harshit Rana bowled a slower delivery to deceive Pat Cummins, restricting the visitors to 204/7.
After the victory, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer admitted that he had butterflies in the stomach during the death overs.
"Right from the 17th over, I had butterflies in the stomach! To be honest, I thought anything can happen in the last over," Iyer said at the post-match presentation.
The KKR captain reflected on his conversation with Harshit Rana before the final, while also expressing satisfaction over the performances of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.
"Harshit was a bit nervous when he was coming to bowl (the last over). I told him, 'Even if we lose, it's fine'. I tried to calm him down as much as possible.
"(Sunil) Narine and (Andre) Russell have got a lot of experience. I am elated to see how Russell performed with bat and ball. Sunny (Narine) executed well.
"It is a luxury to have them in the team. Whenever you start with a win, it gives you motivation. There are areas we need to improve on as a team - fielding is one of them!"
On the other hand, SRH skipper Pat Cummins said he never thought they would come so close while chasing an imposing 209.
"Close game in the end, wonderful game of cricket. Unfortunately, didn't go our way. I thought for the most part, really happy with how we bowled," Cummins said.
"It's one of those games, goes one way or the other, amazing job by Klaas (Klaasen) and Shahbaz to get us back into the game and get us into that position. Who would have thought we'd get that close.
"Unfortunately, a little bit too much. In a game where we didn't really pull it all together. We still almost competed against a very good side at their home venue, lots to be encouraged by, lot of good performers, a couple of points to work on also," he added.
Cummins also conceded that Andre Russell’s blazing exploits with the bat took the game away from SRH.
"Obviously, Dre Russ (Russell) at the end does what Dre Russ does, he's pretty hard to contain. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job," he said.
"You do your planning, you try to execute your best but a pretty tough guy to bowl to, played some good shots, couple of balls maybe we could have bowled a little bit differently but the toughest job in cricket is bowling at someone like that in the end."
(With PTI Inputs)
