Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 by a slender margin of 5 runs.
With this win, KKR are still in the hunt for the playoffs in this edition of the IPL and they would be looking to win all their remaining 4 games. Hyderabad too have reached a stage where they cannot afford any further slip-ups.
The Aiden Markram-led SRH side needs to win all of their remaining games in order to stand a chance to qualify for the playoffs in this edition of the IPL. Things don’t look promising for the Orange Army but they need to fight it with their all.
In this article, we take a look at the top 3 talking points of the SRH vs KKR game in IPL 2023 at Hyderabad:
1. The solid partnership of Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh
At a time when KKR were tottering at 35-3, things weren’t looking promising for the 2-time IPL champions. Then came the valuable 71-run partnership between Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh.
The duo bailed KKR out of a precarious situation and helped them reach a competitive total. Rinku Singh once again played a superb innings and scored 46 runs. Nitish Rana on the other hand, scored 42 runs in 31 balls.
2. T Natarajan’s impressive bowling
Yorker king T Natarajan impressed everyone with his superb death bowling. In 4 overs, the left arm seamer conceded 29 runs and also took a wicket. He had a superb economy of 7.2 and didn’t leak runs at all.
Natarajan had dismissed Shardul Thakur and was also a livewire on the field. In the final over, he dismissed Harshit Rana via a direct hit.
3. Varun Chakravarthy keeps his nerves in the final over
Nitish Rana’s bold and aggressive move to not bowl Shardul Thakur in the final over could well have backfired. He chose his potent weapon Varun Chakravarthy and it paid rich dividends.
Chakravarty delivered the goods with the ball. He bowled 3 overs in the final 5 overs of SRH’s innings and bowled 8 dot balls. That essentially swung the match in favour of the Knights. Varun Chakravarthy deservedly bagged the player of the match award for his impressive bowling.
In 4 overs, he just conceded 20 runs and also took the all-important wicket of Abdul Samad in the final over to seal the fate of SRH.
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