Sunrisers Hyderabad hammered Kolkata Knight Riders, beating them by 65 runs at the iconic Eden Gardens. The hosts didn’t have a concrete bowling plan against Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who launched an 82-run opening partnership. As they were off to a flying start, captain Ajinkya Rahane introduced both Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy early, but they failed to stop the juggernaut.
Not using Anukul Roy in the powerplay also didn’t make sense. He could have been key, but KKR didn’t use him enough. The spinner bowled just two overs, conceding just 16 runs as he finished as the most economical bowler for KKR. They also failed to contain SRH in the middle overs as Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy dictated the play. The duo stitched an 82-run partnership as Hyderabad posted 226 runs on the board in the first innings.
In reply, Finn Allen handed KKR a cracking start but he departed scoring 28 runs in seven balls. After he departed, the three-time champions lost two more wickets in quick succession as Ajinkya Rahane and Cameron Green failed to make any sort of impression. Rinku Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi looked to be in good form, but neither managed to take the game deep. Wickets fell like a house of cards for KKR, who ended up losing by 65 runs.
Rahane blames lack of partnership
After the game, captain Rahane decoded the reason behind their defeat, stating that the team lacked partnerships. He lauded the bowlers for bouncing back in the middle overs, as Hyderabad seemed to be touching 260 at one stage.
“Yeah, I thought, no, we did a couple of big partnerships. Guys who were set, they needed to take it deep in the end with the ball [bat]. I thought we came back really well for 7-8 overs. Within the [10] overs, I thought they were 130, 140-odd. But with the ball, I thought we came back really well. In batting, when you’re chasing the target, you know you need that partnership. We couldn’t get that,” Rahane said in the post-match presentation.
“We thought the wicket will get better but the ball was little stopping. But again, see, no excuses. We got the good start. I thought first six overs we were 78. We lost that one extra wicket. Green is run out. But apart from that, we were going really well. As I said, middle overs were the crucial time for us. We needed that partnership from the set batters. That just didn’t happen. I thought SRH bowlers executed the slower balls and the angles what they used was really good,” he added.
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