Chennai: Nitish Rana was the hero for KKR in their win against SRH. The left-handed opening batsman piled on 80 runs to take KKR’s score to 187. Sunrisers Hyderabad had to chase a target of 188 runs. They started off poorly after they lost both their openers in the first three overs (Warner, significantly in the second over). There was actually no getting back in the game for SRH after that.


There was a good partnership of 92 for the third wicket between Pandey and Bairstow. Bairstow got out after scoring a fifty. After he got out, there were brakes put on the scoring rate of SRH. Mohammed Nabi of Afghanistan didn’t do a lot with the bat as he got out for 14 (11). Nabi was followed by yet another lose innings, by Vijay Shankar who scored 11(7). Perhaps, sending Abdul Samad would have helped SRH’s cause as the youngster scored 19* (8) and looked promising after he hit two big sixes. With the ball for KKR, Prasidh Krishna was the star who picked up four crucial wickets. Pat Cummins and Shakib al Hasan also managed to put breaks on SRH’s batting. They bowled with great economy rates.


Earlier in the match, Nitish Rana scored 80 accompanied by Rahul Tripathi’s 53 (29). Rana was adjudged Man of the match for his brilliant performance.



Let’s look at what both the captains said after the match:


David Warner: “I didn't think there were that many runs on this wicket. They adapted really well, had a good partnership. We failed to execute the first ball of most overs and then conceded a lot at the end.”


Eoin Morgan: Delighted. Build up to the tournament has been pretty good. The camp that we had pre-tournament, the guys gelled well. Never quite sure what performance they will produce. Today was quite magnificent the way the guys batted. Bhajji starting really well in the first over and then not playing a part but using his experience to get around the guys in the game shows the selflessness in the side. Nice to start like this it's obviously a long tournament. We were very happy with the score. We thought if we bowled half-decently we should get over the line.


The next match in the IPL 2021 will be played between Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Match begins at 7:30 pm IST on 12 April 2021.