Rinku Singh shines again, but Kolkata Knight Riders fail to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad
Kolkata : Sunrisers Hyderabad has secured their second victory in IPL 2023. In the match held on April 14 (Friday), they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 23 runs. Sunrisers had set a target of 229 runs for Kolkata to win, but despite playing the full 20 overs, Kolkata could only manage 205 runs with seven wickets down.
For Kolkata, Rinku Singh scored 58 runs off 31 balls, including four sixes and as many fours. However, this time he could not lead his team to victory. After this win, Sunrisers has moved up to the seventh position in the points table, while Kolkata Knight Riders are currently at the fourth position.
Chasing the target of 229 runs, Kolkata Knight Riders had a poor start as they lost the wicket of Rahamanullah Gurbaz for 0. Bhuvneshwar Kumar caught him out off the bowling of Umaran Malik. Shortly after, Venkatesh Iyer (10 runs) also fell to Marco Jansen's delivery, making the score 20 runs for two wickets. Sunil Narine also departed on the next ball. After losing three wickets for 20 runs, a blazing partnership of 62 runs took place between captain Nitish Rana and N. Jagadeesan.
Nitish Rana was dismissed in the 17th over by T. Natarajan's delivery, with the team's score at 165 for six wickets. Nitish Rana played an innings of 75 runs off 41 balls with the help of five fours and six sixes. From here, Rinku Singh (unbeaten 58 runs) tried to win the match for Kolkata with aggressive batting. Kolkata needed 32 runs to win in the last over, but could only manage eight runs.
After losing the toss and batting first, Sunrisers Hyderabad had a strong start. English cricketer Harry Brook and Mayank Agarwal formed a partnership of 46 runs in just 4.1 overs. Most of the runs in this partnership came from Harry Brook's bat. Andre Russell broke this partnership by dismissing Mayank. Mayank scored only 9 runs off 13 balls.
Harry Brook and Captain Aden Markram brought Sunrisers Hyderabad's innings back on track with a partnership of 72 runs. Markram scored 50 runs off 26 balls, including five sixes and two fours, before getting caught out by Andre Russell off Varun Chakravarthy's bowling. After that, Abhishek Sharma and Harry Brook combined for a partnership of 72 runs, taking Sunrisers' score beyond 200 runs.
Abhishek Sharma scored 32 runs off just 17 balls, including three fours and two sixes. After Abhishek Sharma's dismissal, Harry Brook (unbeaten at 100 runs) completed his century. This was the first century of IPL 2023. Harry Brook completed his century off 55 balls, including 12 fours and three sixes. Thanks to Brook's explosive innings, Sunrisers' team scored 228 runs despite losing four wickets. Andre Russell took three wickets for Kolkata Knight Riders, conceding 22 runs.
