SRH soar past KKR as Rahane’s men slump to 65-run home defeat

KOLKATA: If the bowlers let Kolkata Knight Riders down in their first match against Mumbai Indians, it was their batters who faltered to hand a 65-run victory to Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday. It was Sunrisers’ first win in this IPL.

The Knights’ depleted bowling attack made a great comeback to restrict SRH to 226 for eight after their skipper Ajinkya Rahane, playing his 200th IPL match, won the toss and decided to field first. But their batters put up a dismal show and despite some poor fielding by SRH, they could not bat out their full quota of overs, being bowled out for 161 runs in 16 overs.




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New Zealander Finn Allen seemed happy to be back where he scored an unbeaten 100 off 33 balls against South Africa in the T20 World Cup semifinal by hitting SRH pacer David Payne for 25 runs in the first over, smashing two fours and three sixes. But left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey’s great caught-and-bowled effort cut short the KKR impact player’s 28-run innings, which came in just seven balls. The hosts got their quickest 50 in the IPL off just 3.2 overs, but losing Rahane and Cameron Green in quick succession brought SRH back into the game.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi stood tall getting his second 50 in as many games off 27 balls, but once the youngster and Rinku Singh perished, KKR’s hopes faded. Much was expected of Ramandeep Singh, especially in the absence of Andre Russell, but the Punjab batter could manage just 10 runs. It wasn’t surprising to see coach Abhishek Nayar and assistant coach Shane Watson in serious discussion during the last strategic timeout of the match.

Earlier, SRH would have been disappointed to finish below 250 runs after getting 84 for one, the highest Powerplay score in this IPL. Zimbabwean pacer Blessing Muzarabani then put the brakes on by picking up SRH skipper Ishan Kishan and opener Abhishek Sharma in his second over after coming back for his second spell. Aniket Verma was dismissed by Anukul Roy in the left-arm spinner’s first over. From 111 for two in the ninth over, SRH lost the momentum being reduced to 118 for four in the 10th over.

Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy then tried to steady things by putting up an 82-run fifth-wicket stand off 53 balls, but they failed to find the boundaries often. Klaasen finished with a 35-ball 52 with the help of four boundaries and one six.



NUMBER GAMES

• 65 - Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 65-run triumph is their second biggest in terms of runs over KKR in the IPL behind the 110-run victory at Delhi on May 25, 2025.
• 226/8 - SRH’s fifth score of 200+ vs KKR is their third highest against them in the IPL -the highest being 278 for three in Delhi on May 25, 2025.
• 52 - Runs scored by Heinrich Klaasen is his tenth score of 50+ (two hundreds & eight fifties) in the IPL — all for SRH.
• 4/41 - Blessing Muzarbani has produced his first four-wicket haul in the IPL. He is the second bowler after Prasidh Krishna (4/30 in Hyderabad on May 19, 2018) to bag a four-wicket haul for KKR vs SRH in the IPL. 101Sixes hit by Abhishek Sharma in 73 innings to become the second SRH batter to complete a century of sixes in the IPL — the first being David Warner (143 sixes in 95 innings).

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