Andre Russell was the hero as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) registered a thrilling win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their opening match of the IPL 2024 campaign on Saturday (March 23).
Andre Russell starred with the bat and the ball. He first made 64* to power KKR to 208/7 in 20 overs. Earlier Phil Salt made 54 on his KKR debut amidst a top-order collapse for KKR. Russell hammered 7 sixes and 3 fours to take KKR from 105/5 to the final total of over 200 runs.
In response, KKR faced a big scare as Heinrich Klaasen (63 off 29 balls) launched an aggressive in the final few overs of the run-chase. Andre Russell had taken two wickets, while Harshit Rana defended 13 runs in the final over along with three wickets to help KKR win the match by 4 runs.
Andre Russell was named the Player of the Match for his performance. This was a brilliant outing for the West Indian all-rounder, who had made just 222 runs in 14 matches in IPL 2023. There were questions raised about his retention by the franchise.
Though Russell silenced his critics with this knock and bowling performances, India’s legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar cautioned against drawing premature conclusions based on just one game.
Seeing the credit for Russell’s aggressive batting going to KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir, Gavaskar said that this practice should be put on hold as it was just the first match of the season.
"Let's not go ahead of ourselves. He batted well, and it's got nothing to do with anyone coming into there (KKR). If he doesn't do well in the next few innings, will you blame Gautam Gambhir? Let's take it a little bit easy," Gavaskar told Star Sports.
While Russell was undoubtedly brilliant with the bat, Gavaskar also highlighted how Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers failed to execute their plans.
"When you saw someone like Bhuveneshwar Kumar, who was practicing his yorkers so well on the practice pitches, bowled leg-deliveries (in the match) which was everything in the arc for Andre Russell... When somebody like Russell is hitting the ball into the stands, nobody can stop him," Gavaskar explained.
Gautam Gambhir, who won the 2012 and 2014 IPL titles as captain of the KKR franchise, joined the team as their mentor ahead of the IPL 2024 season.
KKR will now travel to Bengaluru to take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in its second match of the season on March 29.
(Star Sports inputs)
