IPL24 : KKR escape Klaasen onslaught to scrape past SRH in a thriller

Kolkata Knight Riders have started their campaign in IPL 2024 with a win. At their home ground Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkata defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 4 runs in a thrilling match. In this high-scoring match, the batsmen from both the teams hit boundaries but the real stars proved to be KKR's explosive Windies all-rounder Andre Russell and young Indian pacer Harshit Rana. Russell first scored 64 runs with the help of 7 sixes and then also took 2 wickets, while Harshit Rana defended 13 runs in the last over against Klaasen b give the team victory.

While the score of more than 200 could not be crossed even once in the first and second matches of this season, both the teams crossed this figure in this match and entertained the audience a lot. A total of 29 sixes (14 KKR, 15 SRH) were hit by both the teams in this match, out of which 7 were hit by Andre Russell and 8 by Sunrisers batsman Heinrich Klaasen.  In the end, despite hitting one six less, Kolkata won the match by just 4 runs.

SRH crumbled after a blistering start

Kolkata set a target of 209 runs for Hyderabad, to achieve which Hyderabad had already blistering start. For that, Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma had completed 60 runs within the powerplay itself. But after the dismissal of both of them, the pace of runs was curbed and wickets also started falling. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakraborty and Suyash Sharma curbed the Hyderabad batsmen. When Abdul Samad's wicket fell on the fifth ball of the 17th over, the score was only 145 runs.

From here, Hyderabad needed 60 runs in the last 3 overs and this is where Heinrich Klaasen changed the course of the match. From the 18th over onwards , Klaasen launched a fierce assault by hit 2  sixes against Varun Chakraborty, while Shahbaz Ahmed also hit a sixer. Even after this, 39 runs were needed in 2 overs and Mitchell Starc was in front, for whom KKR had spent Rs 24.5 crore.  Klaasen launched a fierce asmashed 3 brilliant sixes off Starc, while Shahbaz also hit a six this time.

Now 13 runs were needed in the last over and Klaasen hit a brilliant six on the very first ball of Harshit Rana. In such a situation, only 7 runs were needed in 5 balls and here Harshit turned the match around. He gave only 2 runs in the next 4 balls, while he took the wickets of Shahbaz and Klaasen. Hyderabad needed 5 runs on the last ball but they could not score even a single run and thus Kolkata registered a memorable victory.

Salt-Ramandeep's rapid batting

Earlier, Kolkata's top and middle order failed to make any impact. New opener Phil Salt (54) definitely batted aggressively and hit 3 blistering sixes in the second over itself but on the other hand the rest of the batsmen disappointed. Captain Shreyas Iyer could not even open his account and 4 wickets fell for just 51 runs. From here Ramandeep Singh changed the face of the innings with a counter-attack.  Ramandeep, playing for KKR for the first time, scored 35 runs in just 17 balls, which included 4 tremendous sixes.

On the other hand, Phil Salt completed his half-century in 39 balls. After this, the whole game was in the name of Andre Russell. Russell, who came to the crease in the 13th over, targeted every bowler of Hyderabad one by one. He first created an atmosphere by hitting 3 sixes in the over of leg spinner Mayank Markande and then did the same to the other bowlers. Russell scored the fastest half-century of this season in just 20 balls. With the help of a total of 7 sixes, Russell scored a blistering 64 runs in 26 balls. At the same time, he also got a good contribution from Rinku Singh (23).