Sports Desk: Despite being champions twice in the IPL, the Kolkata Knight Riders have never had such a strong position in the league stage of any season. Winning 9 out of 14 matches, they were the first to enter the play-offs; another match was washed away by rain. In the first qualifier, however, their opponents today were also the mighty Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, Kolkata reached the finals by blowing away the team that had given it a run in the league. They have crossed the target of 160 runs given by Hyderabad by just two wickets.
Mitchell Starc (3 for 34) chose today’s (Tuesday) match at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium as an opportunity to show his old caliber. However, the most expensive Australian speedster in IPL history has been bowling very poorly since the beginning of the ongoing 17th IPL. Along with him, Varun Chakraborty broke the backbone of Hyderabad earlier. However, the team put up a challenging score in a late storm by captain Pat Cummins. Earlier, Rahul Tripathi scored 55 runs, and Heinrich Klaasen scored 32 runs for Hyderabad.
Starc sent Hyderabad’s devastating opener, Travis Head, back with the second ball. After that, the pacer took two more wickets. Varun took 2 wickets, and Harshit Rana took 1 wicket in frugal bowling. Meanwhile, despite losing the match, Cummins’ chances were not over. They will play the second qualifier against the winner of the first eliminator, where the winner will face Kolkata in the final on May 26.
Chasing the target of 160 runs given by Hyderabad, Kolkata started the campaign. They scored 63 runs in six overs of power play. However, they lost the wicket of opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Before leaving, this Afghan star scored 23 runs off 14 balls to give Kolkata the lead. Then Sunil Narine (21 from 16 balls) returned with a gap of 23 runs. But after that, Shah Rukh Khan’s team did not have to look back. For the third wicket, captain Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer made a partnership of 97 runs off 44 balls. That’s how Kolkata won easily.
Both Kolkata’s Iyer picked up individual fifties en route to victory. Venkatesh was unbeaten on 51 runs off 28 balls with 4 sixes and 5 fours. At the other end, Shreyas also played an unbeaten innings of 58 runs off 24 balls with 4 sixes and 5 fours. As a result, the Maroon camp reached the port of victory with eight wickets in hand in 13.4 overs. Hyderabad captains Cummins and Natarajan took one wicket each.
Earlier, Rahul pulled Hyderabad from disaster after losing two openers by just 13 runs. The third wicket fell for 34 runs in between. On the other hand, Rahul, an irregular batsman in the current IPL, maintained his batting style. Which, however, was seen in the entire innings in Hyderabad. Despite losing wickets, they keep the run rate going. Rahul Tripathi returned with 55 runs off 35 balls. Apart from this, Heinrich Klaasen scored 32 runs on 21 balls. Skipper Pat Cummins scored 30 runs off 24 balls.
