Sunrisers Hyderabad triumph over Kolkata Knight Riders by 23 runs in high-scoring IPL match

Kolkata, 14th April 2023: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 23 runs in another high-scoring match in the IPL today. Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Nitish Rana, Narayan Jagdeesan, and Rinku Singh tried to chase down the score of 229 runs set by Hyderabad.

Earlier, after Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl first at the Eden Gardens, Hyderabad scored 228 for four wickets in the allotted 20 overs, thanks to Harry Brook’s storming century, skipper Markram’s aggressive half-century, and Abhishek Sharma and Klaasen’s storming in the last overs. This is the highest score scored by any team this season. Now, Kolkata Knight Riders faced a challenge of 229 runs for victory.

Brook hit an unbeaten 100 off 55 balls to take Hyderabad to 228 for four wickets in the allotted 20 overs, while Russell took three wickets for Kolkata, and Varun Chakravarthy got one wicket.

Kolkata Knight Riders did not get off to a good start in their chase of the 229-run target set by Hyderabad. In the very first over, Gurbaz fell prey to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Before KKR could recover from the shock, Marco Jansen dismissed Venkatesh Iyer (10) and Sunil Narine (0) on back-to-back balls in the fourth over, leaving Kolkata at 20 for three wickets.

However, Narayan Jagdeesan and captain Nitish Rana counter-attacked the bowlers strongly. Meanwhile, Nitish Rana smashed 28 runs in the sixth over bowled by Umran Malik. Rana and Jagdeesan put on a partnership of 62 runs off 29 balls. At the same time, Mayank Markande dismissed Jagdeesan (36) and Andre Russell (3) at regular intervals, pushing KKR’s batting on the back foot once again.

But the captain Nitish Rana, who was holding on to one side, completed his fifty off 25 balls. He continued the fight with the help of the previous match star Rinku Singh. However, they found it difficult to cope with the increasing expected run-rate.

Meanwhile, with 87 runs needed in the last five overs, Rinku Singh raised the hopes of the Kolkata Knight Riders by hitting two sixes and collecting 17 runs. But in the very next over, Natarajan gave Kolkata a big blow by taking the wicket of Nitish Rana, who went back to the pavilion with a 41-ball 75-run knock.

After that, Rinku Singh once again started playing smartly and took the match to the last over. However, in the end, Kolkata Knight Riders fell short by 23 runs to win. Rinku Singh scored an unbeaten 58 off 31 balls.