IPL 2022: Russell’s all-round show in Pune as KKR defeat SRH by 54 runs

Kolkata Knight Riders – 177/6

Sunrisers Hyderabad – 123/8

Kolkata Knight Riders won by 54 runs.

Playing XIs:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (C), am Billings (wk), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, CV Varun

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (C), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, T Natarajan

Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first.

KKR did not have a good start. Venkatesh Iyer got out after scoring just 7. Ajinkya Rahane (28) and Nitish Rana (26) made a partnership of 48 runs but Malik’s struck twice in the same over to get rid of Rana nad Rahane. KKR were 3 down for 72 in 8 overs.

Photo: IPL/BCCI

Sam Billings and Andre Russell made a partnership of 63 at the back end to take KKR’s score to 177 for 6 in 20 overs. Sam Billings scored 34 in 29 balls. Russell was at his brutal best. He smashed Sundar for 3 sixes in the 19^th over. He scored 49* in just 28 balls with 4 sixes and 3 boundaries.

Photo: IPL/BCCI

Umran Malik was outstanding today, he was back among wickets after getting slammed all over the park in the last 3 matches. He took 3 wickets for 33 runs in his 4 over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

was economical as ever, he gave away 27 runs in 4 overs and also took a wicket.

Chasing a healthy total of 177, SRH had a good start but Kane Williamson’s horror show with the bat continued and he got out after facing 17 balls for his 9 runs. SRH lost second wicket in Tripathi in 9^th over on 54 runs. He scored 9 off 12 balls. Abhishek Sharma was however in top form, he smashed 43 off 28 balls with 2 sixes and 4 boundaries.

Photo: IPL/BCCI

Once he got out, Nicholas Pooran soon followed him after scoring just 2 runs. SRH were struggling at 4 for 76 in 12.3 overs. They needed 102 runs in 45 balls. To make matter worse for SRH, Aiden Markram dragged one on to his stumps. He looked in good touch and scored 32 off 25 balls with 3 sixes.

SRH sinked in rapidly and could only score 123/8 in 20 overs and lost by 54 runs.

It was a good bowling effort from KKR. Andre Russell was amazing with the ball today, he took 3 wickets for 22 runs in 4 overs . Umesh Yadav gave away only 19 runs in 4 overs and took 1 wicket. Tim Southee took 2 for 23 in his 4 overs.