Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) won by 23 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a thrilling affair. Notably, the two sides locked horns in match 19 of the ongoing IPL 2023 at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday, April 14.
Nitish Rana won the toss and put the rival team to bat first. Sunrisers got off to a brisk start as opener Harry Brook hit the ground running from the very first over of the contest. However, SRH were handed their first blow in the form of Mayank Agarwal’s dismissal as he got just nine runs to his name before heading back to the dugout.
Rahul Tripathi too was dismissed in the same over by Andre Russell, who concluded his innings with three wickets under his belt. Despite this, Brook continued to play his majestic knock as he hammered boundaries and got the maximums hitting the ball everywhere across the ground.
Brook was aided by skipper Aiden Markram as the duo combined for a 72-run stand which helped SRH remain steady in the contest. Both Brook and Markram registered half-centuries of 32 and 25 balls respectively.
After the dismissal of the skipper (50 runs), Brook shifted gears and got to his lethal best as he slammed 23 runs off Lockie Ferguson’s over. Meanwhile, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen played quick cameos of 32 runs off 17 balls and 16 runs off six balls.
The 16th edition of the IPL saw its first-ever century as Harry Brook clobbered an unbeaten 100 off 55 balls to help his side attain a massive 228-run total in the first innings. Apart from Russell, Varun Chakravarthy was the only other bowler with a wicket to his name.
KKR fight hard in run chase
After the sheer domination in the first innings, SRH extended their lead in the game as Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the vital scalp of Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the third ball of the first over. Marco Jansen too got two wickets on the trot in the fourth over to keep KKR reeling in the chase.
Narayan Jagadeesan got a few boundaries to his name but was unable to convert it into a big score and was dismissed for 36 off 21 balls. The onus was on the skipper to lead from front and Nitish Rana put his best foot forward.
The batter smashed 75 runs off 41 balls with six maximums and five boundaries in his knock. However, after his dismissal, things began to look quite tricky for the side as the required run rate kept shooting up. The onus was yet again on star performer of the previous game against Gujarat, Rinku Singh.
Rinku yet again stepped up and scored a blistering half-century as he got it off 27 balls with three maximums and four boundaries. However, with 32 needing off five balls, Umran Malik comfortably won the game for his side. Rinku remained unbeaten with a score of 58 runs off 31 balls in KKR’s loss at home.