Harshit Rana, with just 12 T20s to his name before Saturday night, found himself with the unenviable task of defending 12 runs off the final over in Kolkata Knight Riders’ first game of IPL 2024. Sunrisers’ win probability, according to ESPNCricinfo, was 0.35% when their No. 6 Abdul Samad fell off the penultimate delivery of the 17th over. Then with five balls to go, they were 97.2% favorites at Eden Gardens. But Harshit Rana held his nerve to dismiss both Shahbaz and Klassen and deliver a win in front of a delirious home crowd.
On strike was a marauding Heinrich Klassen, batting on 56 off 26 deliveries. The previous over, bowled by the IPL’s most expensive player Mitchell Starc, had just gone for 26 runs. Klassen’s partner, Shahbaz Ahmed, had faced just four balls but had already hit 16. And when Klassen pulled Harshit Rana’s first ball of the over for six, it looked like Sunrisers Hyderabad were going to pull off an incredible heist.
Harshit Rana’s incredible cricket journey
Despite the criticism from an India legend Sunil Gavaskar for his behavior of silencing Mayank Agarwal on the field as a gesture of celebration , for Harshit Rana — who ended the game with figures of 3/33, including the wickets of Mayank Agarwal, Shahbaz Ahmed and Heinrich Klassen — the game had a fairytale ending.
Harshit Rana got his break with KKR back in 2022 with some help from Nitish Rana, who had initially recommended his name to Abhishek Nayar before a trial.
“I first came to KKR after being sent to Abhishek Nayar sir by Nitish (Rana) bhaiya. The first day of the trials itself Nayar sir told me I could play for Kolkata,” Rana recollected in an episode of Knights TV on KKR’s YouTube channel in 2022.
Rana was playing as a net bowler for Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 season when KKR’s Rasikh Salam injured his back. When they were looking for a replacement, Nayar called Harshit Rana.
“When Rasikh injured his back, we had to get a replacement player. Nitish Rana has always liked Harshit Rana. So he suggested to Baz (former KKR head coach Brendon McCullum) that we should get Harshit Rana on board,” former mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders David Hussey told Knights TV.
Harshit Rana had made his debut for KKR in 2022, when he was hit for a boundary off the first ball. But he managed to come back with a wicket two balls later. That was the only wicket he would take in the 2022 season where he got to play two matches for KKR. In the 2023 season, Harshit Rana claimed five wickets in six games.
What stands out is that while the right-arm fast bowler hails from New Delhi, and has played age group cricket for them, he was called up by KKR as a replacement for the injured Salam in IPL 2022 before he could make his debut at the senior level for Delhi.
Harshit Rana’s heroic bowling in the last over propelled KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer to have words of appreciation and reveal the plan of bowling in the final overs versus rampaging Klassen.
I had belief in Harshit Rana- Shreyas Iyer
“To be honest, in the last over I thought anything could happen,” KKR captain Shreyas Iyer said after the match. “They needed 13 runs and we probably didn’t have the most experienced bowler bowling at that particular time.
“But I had that belief in him. I knew that something [good] would happen.”
Harshit, understandably, went into that last over with butterflies in his stomach, and at that point Iyer told him to just back himself. “This is the time where he could become a hero. That’s what I told him. ‘Back yourself. No matter what happens in this situation, we’re going to back you’.
“To be honest, Harshit was a bit nervous when he was coming to bowl [the 20th over]. I looked into his eyes and I told him ‘this is your moment, buddy. You need to make the best use of it and don’t think much about it’.
“I told him ‘Even if we lose, it’s fine. You just back yourself and you see to it that you execute whatever I say and what messages we got from inside’. It was a big cluster [of players] in between, but I tried to calm him down as much as possible and then the rest is history.” concluded Shreyas Iyer.
Shreyas Iyer in the post match presentation echoed words of praise for Harshit Rana as he had a complete belief that Harshit Rana could pull it off which he did claiming dangerous Klassen when 5 runs were required of 2 balls.
Andre Russell on Harshit Rana
Not only skipper Shreyas Iyer but Player of the Match Andre Russell whose 64 runs and 2 wickets once saw going into vain due to madness assault by Heinrich Klassen had words of appreciation for Harshit Rana. The Jamaican said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo :
“I think his body language was on point in the last over; he wanted the ball. That is the body language we all need as professionals. If he was shying away from it, it could have gone their way. He told me that he wanted the last over. So he claimed it and he did deliver for us. With the first ball gone for six, still there was some doubt there, but you know he came back strong and he got the job done,”
Harshit Rana finished the game with career-best T20 figures of 3 for 33. With Klassen clearing the boundary at will against spinners and fast bowlers alike, the KKR dressing sent out a clear message – take the pace off the ball. And it worked to perfection, with Harshit outdoing Klassen with a slower ball in a key moment, when Sunrisers needed five runs off two balls. Kolkata will next face the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Friday, March 29.