Kolkata Knight Riders, on Sunday, started off their IPL 2021 journey successfully, defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs.

Batting ahead, KKR’s Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi took the total forward at a steady pace in the middle overs, after an initial boost by Shubman Gill, who was dismissed early at a score of 15 runs. For Sunrisers, the top performers were Jonny Bairstow (55 off 40 balls) and Manish Pandey (61 off 44 balls).

Dinesh Karthik produced the firecrackers for KKR in the later overs, giving the Kolkata franchise a slim but important edge that proved to be all too important in deciding the fate of the match.

Also read: IPL 2021: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs at Chepauk

Here are the highlights from the SRH vs KKR match :

  • Despite a dead set approach by Abdul Samad, Sunrisers Hyderabad remain unsuccessful in securing the match, beign defeated by a margin of 10 runs.
  • Sixer! Abdul Samad keeps hopes alive for SRH, as he hits Pat Cummins over the long on, taking the team total to 165.
  • Ouch! Mohammad Nabi suffers a painful hit to the head from a Prasidh Krishna delivery. A strategic time out has been summoned.
  • Jonny Bairstow brings up his half century off 32 balls, and is almost immediately dismissed for 55 by Pat Cummins.
  • Big over for Sunrisers Hyderabad, as Jonny Bairstow squeezes 15 runs out of it. SRH look to get back into rhythm, as they stand at 60/2 after eight overs.
  • KKR look to capitalise, as Prasidh Krishna and Shakib al Hasan pick up David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha in consecutive overs.
  • First over for Sunrisers, and already a lot has happened. Warner gets dropped by Pat Cummins, and Saha ends the over with a cracking, beautiful six. KKR 8/0 at the end of first over.
  • KKR put up a total of 187 for the loss of six wickets at the end of 20 overs.
  • Mohammad Nabi clears house, taking out the dangerous Nitish Rana and skipper Eoin Morgan in two consecutive balls.
  • Rahul Tripathi scores his half century from 28 balls, and leaves immediately after top-edging a delivery from T Natarajan, which wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha makes no mistake to hold onto.
  • Nitish Rana brings up his half century off 37 balls, sending Vijay Shankar far above the leg side boundary for a huge sixer.
  • Leg-spin Rashid Khan strikes for SRH. Shubman Gill misjudges the delivery, tries to go big, and gets his middle stump ticked off. Hyderabad looking at a breakthrough here.
  • Three consecutive boundaries from Nitish Rana, decimating deliveries from Sandeep Sharma. KKR 33/0 at the end of four overs.
  • Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana start off for KKR, with the former sending the very first delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar gliding through the cover for a sublime boundary. Big appeal by Kumar on the last ball, but it’s a no-go by the umpire.

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner on Sunday won the toss and chose to bowl first, ahead of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana started off for Kolkata Knight Riders.

Going into the match, SRH had ample options in their bowling department, with seam bowlers such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan and Vijay Shankar  being aided by the Afghan spin-duo of Mohammed Nabi and Rashid Khan, as well domestic leg-break bowler Abdul Samad.

KKR, on the other hand, had adequate balance of firepower and technique in their squad, with Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell  set to propel their score ahead.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan, started off their campaign on Sunday with a win against David Warner-led Sunrisers Hyderabad, with both sides looking for an early victory to set in motion their respective journeys.

In 2020, under the newly acquired leadership by Morgan, KKR finished with same numbers of points as that of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The latter, however, progressed to the playoffs due to their superior run rate.

Head-to-head, KKR emerged statistically as the stronger of the two ahead of the match by a 12-7 margin, taking into account the total number of 19 matches played between the two teams.

A new addition in the KKR squad in the auctions this year was that of Australian power hitter Ben Cutting, who, significantly, was the main bat behind SRH’s title winning performance in the IPL 2016 finals.