IPL 2023: A Knight to forget for Hyderabad

ISLAMABAD, May 5th (Online): SYNOPSIS: It was yet another game where Sunrisers Hyderabad lost the plot with the bat and gifted Kolkata Knight Riders a crucial win.

An inspired bowling performance from Varun Chakravarthy helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday. Defending nine runs in the final over, the mystery spinner conceded only three runs and took the wicket of Abdul Samad as Kolkata posted their fourth win of the season to stay alive in the tournament.

Chasing 173 for win, Hyderabad never really looked in control of the chase as they kept gifting wickets away and Varun’s spell — where he bowled three of his four overs at the death, and conceded only 12 runs swung the game in Kolkata’s favour.

With only four matches left, every game is a virtually a knockout for Kolkata and defending a moderate total, the seamers delivered up front. Playing only his second IPL game, Harshit Rana showed good control with the new ball and provided the early breakthrough by removing Mayank Agarwal. Shardul Thakur, who is returning after an injury, accounted for Abhishek Shara in his first over and later on with Hyderabad cruising in the chase, picked the wicket of Heinrich Klaasen. The wicket of Klaasen was the first visible change of tide as Kolkata found an opening they desperately sought.

While Vaibhav Arora also chipped in with the wickets of Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen, Kolkata’s spinners, especially Sunil Narine had another disappointing wicket as he went wicket-less. With Kolkata preferring to go with Anukul Roy as an Impact Player to provide depth in the batting department, Suyash Sharma missed out. Although the left-arm spinner started well by dismissing Harry Brook, he was taken apart by Klaasen in his third over. While Narine continued to struggle, Varun had another memorable outing.

Markram anchors and Klassens blitz
After a nervous start to the chase, skipper Markram and Klaassen’s 71-run partnership pulled the Orange Army back into the game. Whilst Klaasen took the attacking route, Makram looked to shepherd the innings. However, the rest of the batting line-up could not deliver much either side of their partnership.

Agarwal started with a couple of boundaries and six, but his stay was short-lived and his partner Abhishek too followed him soon. Having shuffled their opening pair regularly through the season, Hyderabad continued to pay the price as the middle-order was entrusted with the job to bail them out. Rahul Tripathi provided

some much needed momentum in their chase as he quickly got off the blocks scoring 20 runs off eight deliveries. However, an attempted scoop of Andre Russell’s over, ended his stay. Brook, who scored an outstanding century when the two teams met earlier at the Eden Gardens, picked up his second successive zero as his struggle on spin-friendly pitches continued.

Earlier, winning the toss Nitish Rana opted to bat first. On a decent batting surface, Kolkata once again got off to a bad start. Having already tried six different pair so far, Kolkata opened with Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. But even this combination failed to click as the latter departed in the second over delivered by Jansen. Even Venkatesh Iyer lasted only four deliveries as Jansen started with two wickets in his first over. And by the time Roy departed in the fifth over, it was once again down to Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh to bail them out. The 62-run partnership between the skipper and Rinku brought Kolkata back into the game as the duo mixed caution with aggression.

And once Rana was dismissed in the 12th over with Kolkata placed at 96/4, Russell started off on a confident note as he smashed a six over covers using his brute power. However, even his stay turned into a brief one as leg-spinner Mayank Markande tossed one well outside the off-stump and the Jamaican, who was beaten in the flight comfortably, still went for an ugly hoick, only for T Natarajan to catch it a short third-man. At that moment, it seemed as if Hyderabad had taken full control of the game as the decibel levels were deafening.

Though their bowling and batting efforts were bits and pieces on Thursday evening, their fielding was electric. Markram took a sublime catch running almost till long-on off his own bowling to remove Rana. Later in the innings, Samad took another stunning catch to dismiss Rinku. Running forward from the mid-wicket fence, he dived forward to pluck the ball inches from the ground. Apart from these two catching efforts, their ground fielding through the course of the evening was top-notch as they saved quite a few runs.

Having made all the hard work with the ball and even Markram proving to be shrewd with his bowling changes, this was a contest that Hyderabad should have closed out with the bat. However, the constant shuffling in the batting order means their batters seem to be low on confidence at a crucial juncture of the season.