Andre Russell took fans down memory lane at the Eden Gardens with a sensational show of six-hitting. Sunil Narine rolled back the years, choking the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters, returning to his miserly best. The old warhorses of Kolkata Knight Riders put on a show for their former captain Gautam Gambhir, who was back at the KKR dugout, this time as the mentor of the 2-time champions. The two West Indies stars stepped up along with a 22-year-old local pacer in Harshit Rana to help the Knight Riders beat SunRisers in a last-over thriller and begin their season with an 4-run win on Saturday, March 23.
| KKR vs SRH – Scorecard | Highlights |
Kolkata Knight Riders stormed to the third spot in the IPL 2024 points table after holding their nerves in the paisa-vasool contest that went down the wire. Led by World Cup-winning Pat Cummins, the SunRisers looked out of sorts for the most part of the contest until Heinrich Klaasen and local boy Shahbaz Ahmed brought their chase back to life in the last 3 overs. SunRisers needed 60 runs in the last 3 overs and the contest looked dead and buried.
However, the emotions in the two dug-outs at the Eden Gardens changed drastically as Heinrich Klaasen launched into the Kolkata Knight Riders bowling attack, sending them into orbit. The South African superstar decimated IPL’s most expensive player, Mitchell Starc, who conceded 53 runs in his quota of 4 overs without taking a wicket. Klaasen tore into Starc in the penultimate over of the contest, smashing 26 runs off it and bringing the equation down to 13 from the last 6 deliveries of the contest.
However, Harshit Rana, 22-year-old fast bowler from Delhi, held his nerves and delivered a superb final over, picking the wickets of Klaasen and Shahbaz to deliver 2 crucial points for his team. Gambhir, who was sitting nervously in the dugout, had smile back on his face as he walked out to the middle for the customary post-match routines.
