KKR thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in all three 3 facets of the game. The Ajinkya Rahane-led side won the match by a whopping margin of 80 runs, which is immense in modern cricket. Venkatesh Iyer was a force to reckon with as his knock of 60 runs in 29 balls proved to be one of the key differences for the win. Venkatesh Iyer also justified his price tag of 23.75 Crores with his fierce & calculative batting style.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) need to go back to the drawing board as they have now lost 3 back to back defeats. The ultra-attacking approach is raising a lot of eyebrows as getting bundled out for 120 while chasing 201 suggests there needs to be a tactical change going forward in the tournament.
Ajinkya Rahane’s brisk start & half centuries from Angkrish Raghuvanshi & Venkatesh Iyer set the tone
KKR were asked to bat first by the SRH skipper Pat Cummins. This clash was a repeat of the IPL 2024 final in which KKR had come out victorious quite convincingly. It was quite astonishing to see that the Eden Gardens wasn’t fully filled, as some reports suggest that the ticket price got an unexpected hike.
The destructive duo of Quinton de Kock & Sunil Narine was out within the powerplay overs. The deadly bowling pair of Pat Cummins & Mohammed Shami mixed their line & lengths quite smartly with short ball ploy & full length delivery, which kept Narine & Quinton guessing.
Ajinkya Rahane was in beast mode against Cummins & Shami and was dealing in sixes. Rahane gave a reminder to world cricket, technique and timing, world world-class bowlers can be taken to the cleaners as well. KKR had a pretty good power-play where they accumulated 53-2.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi chipped in with invaluable contribution as well. Raghuvanshi along with Rahane formed a critical partnership of 81 runs in 51 balls. The youngster seemed as if he was toying with SRH’s bowlers as all the variations where proving to be ineffective.
In the 11th over, when Raghuvanshi had already smashed a four & six, Rahane tried to continue the dominance and played a reverse sweep shot which got an edge and catch was caught by wicket-keeper Klaasen. Rahane missed out on a well-deserved half century as he was dismissed on 38 runs in 27 balls with 1 four and 4 humongous sixes. KKR’s score was 97-3 in 11 overs at his wicket.
The ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis was brought in the attack by Cummins in the 13th over. Kamindu has developed a unique skill of bowling with both hands, he can be a right arm off-spinner as well as left arm off spinner and MCC laws doesn’t prohibit this at all.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi notched up his 2nd IPL half century & his first this season. Kamindu bowled a wide off stump delivery while bowling his 4th ball & forced Raghuvanshi to go for a inside out shot but Harshal Patel took a running diving catch at deep backward point. The third umpire gave a signal of out and Raghuvanshi was back in dug after scoring 50 runs in 32 balls and struck 5 fours and 2 sixes.
Venkatesh Iyer & Rinku Singh had to do a bit of rebuilding as the score 106-4 in 12.4 overs. The surface wasn’t a proper belter as it had a tinge of grass and the odd ball was also keeping low. The strategic time out was taken at the end of the 15th over, KKR had scored 25 runs from 11-15 overs.
Rinku Singh was in the vintage mode against Harshal Patel; in the 17th over, he struck a hat-trick of fours. The peculiarity of those fours was that Rinku smashed boundaries to deep backward point as wide off stump yorkers were getting thrashed.
Venkatesh Iyer got into the groove by watching Rinku Singh dictate the terms. Venkatesh Iyer pummelled 3 fours and 1 six to Pat Cummins in the 19th over as over the wicket & around the wicket tactics were back-firing very brutally. Venkatesh Iyer now has amassed 208 runs against SRH and hit 3 half-centuries.
Venkatesh Iyer, though, got out after a puissant knock of 60 runs in 29 balls involving 7 fours and 3 huge sixes. There was carnage when Rinku Singh & Venkatesh Iyer were at the crease, who stitched a match-turning partnership of 91 runs in 41 balls. KKR got to the 200 runs mark and in the last 5 overs, the home team scored a mind-boggling 78 runs.
Vaibhav Arora & Varun Chakravarthy bamboozle SRH batters
The steep run chase of 201 runs not only required SRH a magnificent start but someone who can handle one end and play the role of anchor; that didn’t happen. Travis Head, who came in the 2nd innings as an impact player sub, had a 2-ball stay who was outfoxed by Vaibhav Arora, as smashing 2 boundaries back to back a bit wasn’t a great decision.
There was a crisis in SRH’s top order, Abhishek Sharma, who has proved to the worldof cricket that he is next big thing by performing for India & SRH, the batter’s off stump nemesis was exposed. Harshit Rana got rid of Abhishek & Ishan very cheaply as SRH was in deep troubleat 9-3 in 2.1 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane marshalled his troops smartly, the required run rate was creeping with every fall of wicket and dot ball. SRH batters seemed in a hurry to chase down the target in what we can say 16 or 18 overs even when their run rate was not even 8 runs per over at the end of 9 overs with 63-4 being the score.
Kamindu Mendis showed a bit of promise. The strategic time out at the end of 9 overs, perhaps break the concentration of Sri Lankan batter. Sunil Narine was introduced in the bowling attack for the 10th over, the crafty spinner made Kamindu reach for playing a slog sweep kind of shot to deep mid wicket & he fell in that trap. Kamindu had to go after playing a knock of 27 runs in 20 balls.
SRH was in deep tatters at 66-5 in 9.3 overs. The victory looked a bit improbable given the spinners were getting drift. Heinrich Klaasen & Pat Cummins had no other option but to swing the bat, which wasn’t going to be a productive one. Not a single batter of SRH scored 35 runs, which is quite concerning. KKR bundled out SRH at 120 in 16.4 overs.
Vaibhav Arora & Varun Chakravarthy took 3 wickets apiece. It won’t be wrong to say that the early damage of SRH was done in the powerplay overs as SRH is very much dependent on their openers to lay a foundation, and that was the main reason in the IPL 2024 edition when they lost the matches and the final one-sidedly.
What lies ahead for KKR & SRH
KKR’s next match is against LSG on Tuesday, 8th April, which is a day game. KKR as of now is placed in 5th position in the points table with 4 points at a NRR of +0.07 as a 80 run victory has benefited them, and in the later stages of the tournament, this can prove to be handy. KKR showed unity in the team after the previous disastrous performance against MI and the way Rinku & Venkatesh batted in death overs, KKR fans can believe that they can defend the title.
SRH, on the other hand, are placed at the bottom in the points table with a NRR of -1.612 with 3 defeats in 4 matches and now a hat-trick of loses. SRH’s next match is against GT on 6th April, Sunday. Pat Cummins would be under the scanner so would be head coach Daniel Vettori as the ideology of going all guns blazing is taking them nowhere.