Kolkata Knight Riders kept alive their outside chances of reaching the playoffs by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 54 runs in Match 61 of the season at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Saturday, May 14.
Led by Andre Russell’s unbeaten 49 and their bowling figures of 3/22, KKR came up with a comprehensive performance against SRH, slipping from their 5th consecutive defeat.
KKR made a huge jump in the net run rate to reach the sixth position, while SRH slipped to the 8th position as they seem to have forgotten to win once again.
KKR vs SRH, IPL 2022 Highlights
It was a rough ride for SRH, who started their season with 2 losses but came back with 5 consecutive wins. However, Kane Williamson’s men are in danger of not making the playoffs after losing 5 on the bounce.
Williamson Struggle
SRH needed a decent start after conceding a few extra runs at the end but that was not to be the case as Kane Williamson struggled to get going. He was dismissed for 9 off 17 balls as batting coach Brian Lara shook his head in despair when the captain saw his stumping by Andre Russell.
KKR could only manage 32 runs in the powerplay despite a quick start from Abhishek Sharma.
SRH were never able to keep up with the asking rate rising in the powerplays. Rahul Tripathi fell for 9 (12 balls) while big gun Nicholas Pooran once again scored a 2 for his Trinidad teammate Sunil Narine, to deceive.
Aiden Markram (32) and Abhishek (43) were the only two batsmen who made disappointing batting performances for SRH.
SRH were reduced to 123/8 in 20 overs as the KKR bowlers took the big step on Saturday.
Russell (3/33), Narine (1/34), Tim Southee (2/23), Umesh Yadav (1/19) and Varun Chakraborty (1/25) – Collective bowling effort from the 2-time champion. Must have made Captain Iyer happy.
Earlier in the day, young opener Venkatesh Iyer suffered another failure as the left-hander fell for 7 in the second over from Marco Janssen, who returned to the playing XI for Sunrisers along with T Natarajan and Washington Sundar. Came.
IPL 2022 Points Table
Iyer returned to the playing XI on Monday after being ruled out of a few matches against Mumbai Indians. He scored 43 runs in 24 balls with the support of head coach Brendon McCullum. However, luck once again turned Iyer’s side as he was playing while trying to hit a boundary.
However, KKR attacked the SRH bowlers with Nitish Rana batting at number three and senior opener Ajinkya Rahane advancing in the powerplay. Rahane, who was suffering from a hamstring problem, hit 3 sixes for 28 runs in 24 balls. Rahane was unable to run between the wickets but he stood his ground and hit big shots in the powerplay.
Umran found the form
However, pacer Umran Malik picked up the wickets of Rahane and Nitish Rana in his first over itself. Umran then returned to dismiss KKR captain Shreyas Iyer for 15 (9 balls), who hit him straight at the deep mid-wicket fielder. This was the second time in the current season that Umran got the KKR captain out of a reverse fixture after a memorable yorker.
Just after taking his maiden 5 wicket haul against Gujarat Titans on 27 April, Umran conceded 48 runs in his 4 over spell against Chennai Super Kings on 1 May. He was taken to the cleaners by Delhi Capitals as he scored 52 runs. In his quota of 4 overs. Umran then bowled only 2 overs against Royal Challengers Bangalore on 8 May, conceding 25 runs.
But SRH will be happy to see that Umar gets back in form and picked up 18 wickets in 12 matches.
KKR stumbled a bit in the middle overs as they lost Rinku Singh and skipper Iyer in quick succession.
Russell Blitz in Pune
However, KKR’s MVP this season, Andre Russell, joined hands with Sam Billings, who returned to the team in place of Sheldon Jackson. The duo shared a 65-run partnership for the sixth wicket, which helped KKR reach the 150-mark.
Billings played the role of the offensive, allowing Russell to settle into his innings. However, KKR dismissed Billings for 34 (29 balls) in the 19th over off Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
KKR were on 157 at the end of the 19th over and Andre Russell struck off-spinner Washington Sundar for the final over from skipper Williamson, hitting 3 sixes and scoring 20 runs to push KKR’s total to 177.