KKR has won its first match of the season against SRH. Kolkata Knight Riders delivered a spectacular performance in their season opener match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. KKR won by 10 runs. Riding on the strong batting supported by good bowling in the power play and towards the end, KKR gave a sneak peek into their much balanced side in comparison to the last season. What makes this win even more special is that this was KKR's 100th win in IPL across all the seasons.
Highlights
After the early dismissal of Shubman Gill; Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi displayed some attacking cricket and laid the foundation for a 200 plus score. Owing to this partnership, despite late stutter and wickets falling in heap in the last few overs, KKR ended up with a formidable 187 on the board. The Chennai wicket appeared to be two paced since the beginning of the inning but the dew factor was expected to negate this effect in the second inning.
Scoreboard
In the second inning, KKR started strongly by keeping the runs under check and also accounting for two early wickets including that of David Warner. David Warner was given a respite in the first over itself when Harbhajan Singh, playing his first match in KKR colours, induced a false drive which ended up in Warner playing it in the air towards Pat Cummins. Cummins, running in from the point area, failed to hold onto the chance. But, this did not cost KKR much as Prasidh Krishna bowled a snorter which made edge to the safe hands of Dinesh Karthik.
After the power play, Bairstow and Manish Pandey stitched a good partnership and kept SRH in the contention for victory. Later in the inning, after Bairstow's dismissal off Pat Cummins, the pace of the innings slowed down. The run rate mounted beyond 12 per over. Manish Pandey held one end intact scoring runs at a good pace but kept on losing his partners at the other end. Good last overs from the KKR pacers closed the deal.
