Sunrisers Hyderabad is on a roll as they win their third game in a row in this year’s Indian Premier League. After losing the first two games, not many would have thought that Kane Williamson’s side will be winning the next three but certainly they have now got the momentum. On the other hand, things are not going in the right way for Kolkata Knight Riders and they have suffered two consecutive defeats. SRH won the toss and sent KKR to bat first on a relatively green pitch at Brabourne Stadium.
Against Hyderabad’s pace attack, KKR batters never looked settled. Nitish Rana and Andre Russell helped the Knights to post 175 on the board. But it was again a former Knight that took the game away from them, this time it was Rahul Tripathy. After SRH lost both the openers early, Tripathy just came in and started to dominate and Markram finished the game in style with 13 balls to spare. KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer looked disappointed after the game and accepted that his bowlers weren’t up to the task tonight.
“Feeling very drained. I thought it was a good total. To be honest, Tripathi came in and changed the moment and didn’t allow us to settle. Their bowlers executed the stuff well as the ball was seaming. As batters, we were settled at the end of the powerplay and put in a great effort as a batting unit. It was an off day as a bowling unit,” – Shreyas Iyer said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Let’s look at the talking points from the KKR vs SRH game –
SRH pace attack too hot for KKR
KKR had a new opening partner with Venkatesh Iyer in this game i.e Aaron Finch. But the Aussie could not make a mark in the game and gave his wicket to Marco Jansen very early. Natarajan, who is famous to pick wickets at the death, this time rattled KKR’s top order in his first and second spell. And there was Umran Malik who bowled his fastest balls as ever to get through the gate of Shreyas Iyer with a perfect 148 KMph yorker. Bhuvi got the better of Pat Cummins with the lovely slower ball in the death overs. Overall it was a pace bowling exhibition at the CCI for SRH.
Tripathi showed KKR what they missed out in the KKR vs SRH match
After DK and Kuldeep Yadav, KKR fell to another of his former player, this time Rahul Tripathy. The 31-year-old Maharashtra batter came in at number 3 and started to attack from the beginning. Tripathy played big shots against almost every KKR bowler and looked like he was in complete control. He completed his fifty in just 21 balls and put the pressure on KKR bowlers. He made a superb 37-ball 71 to make his side chase the total comfortably. KKR management will be thinking about what a gem they lost.
KKR’s bowling is a thing of concern
Defending 175, which was a par score at the Brabourne, KKR needed to pick up wickets regularly. Cummins gave them the early breakthrough after dismissing in form Abhishek Sharma for just 3 but he was also expensive. Sunil Narine was economical with his spell and gave away just 23 in his four overs but KKR needed wickets from him. Apart from it, most of the bowlers got dispatched all over the park.
