KOLKATA: Andre Russell was at his belligerent best to bring Kolkata Knight Riders out of the woods with the bat before he came good with the ball to help the hosts record a narrow four-run victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening IPL match at the Eden Gardens.
The Knights’ poor batting and bowling Powerplay records returned to haunt them as the hosts were reduced to 32/3 in the fourth over after SRH skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and decided to bowl first. But Russell got his half-century off 20 balls and stayed undefeated on 64, hitting three fours and seven sixes, as KKR collected 85 runs off the last five overs. KKR’s star of last season Rinku Singh too found the boundaries with some good placements before falling for 23 off 15 balls.
The visitors got off to a fluent start with impact player Abhishek Sharma along with Mayank Agarwal racing to 65 for one in the first six overs. It was again KKR’s spin trio led by Sunil Narine (1/19) who restricted runs in the middle overs.
1/10:Russell, Harshit help KKR edge SRH in IPL thriller
AFP
2/10:Andre Russell's heroics
The big-hitting Russell steered Kolkata to 208/7 with his unbeaten 25-ball 64 and a 81-run stand with Rinku Singh after England's Phil Salt began the batting charge with his 54.PTI
3/10:Harshit Rana's last over
Needing 13 off the last over after a flurry of sixes from SRH's Klaasen in overs 18 and 19, fast bowler Harshit was hit for a six on ball one but kept calm to send back Shahbaz Ahmed and Klaasen in the space of three balls.PTI
4/10:Heinrich Klaasen's blitz
Heinrich Klaasen smashed 63 off 29 balls to give KKR a scare as SRH attempted to chase down a victory target of 209 at Eden Gardens.PTI
5/10:Pat Cummins' debut as captain
Pat Cummins, on his IPL debut as captain, faced the final ball and needed four to tie the match but Harshit bowled a dot ball to trigger wild celebrations.AP
6/10:Mitchell Starc's expensive spell
Mitchell Starc broke the record in the auction when KKR shelled out $2.98 million for the left-arm quick. But Starc endured a day to forget, getting hit for 53 runs off his four overs.AFP
7/10:Sunrisers Hyderabad's strong start
SRH started strongly as Mayank Agarwal (32) and Abhishek Sharma (32) put on 60 for the opening wicket before Harshit broke through to send back Agarwal.PTI
8/10:Russell's bowling impact
Starc created an early chance but wicketkeeper Salt spilled a catch to extend Sharma's stay, which was finally cut short by Russell's pace bowling.PTI
9/10:KKR's spin dominance
KKR unleashed their spin force and a wicket each to Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine further dented SRH's chase.AP
10/10:Klaasen-Ahmed partnership
Klaasen decided to unleash his power in a 58-run stand off 16 ball with Ahmed to scare KKR.AFPBut Heinrich Klaasen (63 off 29 balls) showed why he is rated so highly in this format of the game as he and Abdul Samad brought SRH back in the match with a 34-run fifth-wicket stand. Even after Samad’s departure, Shahbaz Ahmed continued the tempo with a five-ball 16, but Harshit Rana came good in the last over to take two wickets to bring up the victory.
Earlier, KKR’s two debutants — Phil Salt and Ramandeep Singh — steadied the ship with a 54-run fifth-wicket stand off 29 balls and set the stage for Russell and Rinku Singh to finish with a flourish. Russell and Rinku stitched together an 81-run partnership for the sixth wicket off just 33 balls.
KKR went in with another new opening combination as Narine opened with Salt. But the gamble fell flat as the West Indian was run out unnecessarily in the second over after Salt gave the side a flowing start, hitting Marco Jansen for three consecutive sixes.
Left-arm pacer T Natarajan struck in his first over, picking up Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer while Nitish Rana was caught by Rahul Tripathi while attempting a reverse sweep off Markande.
With wickets falling at the other end, the world’s No. 2 T20I batter Salt had to restrict his shots till Ramandeep took on the initiative.
The Punjab allrounder displayed some clean hitting that saw Salt raising the tempo too. It took a magnificent catch by Markande off Cummins to see the back off Ramandeep.
