By: Shree1news, 11 APR 2021
Kolkata Knight Riders registered a 10-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad to start their Indian Premier League 2021 campaign with a win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai today.
Defending a target of 188 for victory, KKR restricted SRH to 177 for 5 in 20 overs to win the match and collect 2 important factors from their campaign opener in Chennai.
Manish Pandey, Jonny Bairstow and Abdul Samad performed valiant knocks however the target proved too far of their reach as dew also performed an enormous factor in the match.
SRH vs KKR IPL 2021: Highlights
Pandey remained unbeaten on 61 off 44 balls with 2 fours, 3 sixes whereas Bairstow scored 55 and Samad made 19 not out.
KKR pacer Prasidg Krishna was the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 35 whereas Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins and Andre Russell bagged a wicket each for the two-time champions.
Russell defended 21 off the last over to make sure victory for Dinesh Karthik’s Kolkata Knight Riders.
The win was KKR’s 100th in the IPL making them the third team after Mumbai Indians (120) and Chennai Super Kings (106) to attain the feat in this competition.
“I didn’t think there were that many runs on this wicket. They adapted really well, had a good partnership. We misexecuted the first ball of most overs after which conceded a lot at the end. We lost early wickets, and Jonny and Manish got us in a good position, so we had our chances. The dew made a difference.
“If the bowlers overpitched, it was easy to hit it, and with the height in their team, and with the cross-seam, it stopped a little bit on us. We want to have won the first game, however we have 4 more games at this venue and hopefully we will get used to the square and the dimensions of this ground,” SRH skipper David Warner mentioned after the match.
Earlier, opener Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) hit fluent half-centuries to propel Kolkata Knight Riders to a challenging 187 for six against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
SRH’s Rashid Khan (2/24) was yet again at his best, asking tough questions to the batsmen but most of his bowling colleagues proved ineffective on a batting-friendly wicket.
Dinesh Karthik (22 not out off 9 balls) provided a late flourish to KKR innings but they could gather only 42 runs in the last 5 overs.
Source:A-N