In the 25th match of IPL 2022, SunRisers Hyderabad pulled off a superb seven-wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai to improve their standing on the points table. Rahul Tripathi’s 37-ball 71, Aiden Markram’s half-century, T Natarajan and brilliant bowling by Umran Malik were the highlights of SRH’s performance on Friday evening.

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Markram smashed Pat Cummins for four and two back to back sixes in the third, fourth and fifth delivery of the 18th over to finish off in style. The South African eventually finished on an individual score of 68 not out of 36 balls.

Poor start for KKR

Put into the bat first, KKR lost three quick wickets in the PowerPlay. As captain Shreyas Iyer tried to rebuild the innings Umran Malik rattled him with pace and length in the final delivery of the 10th over. The dismissal got legendary South African pace bowler Dale Steyn, who was sitting in the SRH dugout, excited. Steyn jumped out of his seat and hugged Muttiah Muralitharan.

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Earlier in the game, SRH skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and opted to field against KKR.

SRH made a brilliant start in the game, with Marco Jansen dismissing KKR’s debutant Aaron Finch early in the innings. T Natarajan, then, picked two quick wickets of Venkatesh Iyer (6) and Sunil Narine (6) to put the Knight Riders in trouble before Iyer and Rana stitched a 39-run stand.

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However, Rana’s 54 off 36 balls and Andre Russell’s unbeaten 25-ball 49 helped KKR post a modest 175 for 8 in 20 overs. 

Great recovery by SRH batters

In reply, SRH also got off to a similar start, losing the opening duo of Abhishek Sharma and Williamson in the PowerPlay. However, Tripathi’s 71 off 37 balls took SRH near victory. Tripathi smashed 6 sixes and four boundaries to decorate his innings. He also shared a 94-run fourth-wicket partnership with Aiden Markram, who slammed a fifty, to set the tone of SRH’s chase. 

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This was SunRisers Hyderabad’s third win in five matches. With this win, they rose to the seventh position on the table.