Sunrisers Hyderabad made it two in two as they outplayed Kolkata Knight Riders on their home ground at Eden Gardens on Friday. This was the third time in a row that the home team was defeated in the Tata IPL 2023 match. Earlier this week, Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk on Wednesday, on Thursday, Gujarat Titans beat Punjab Kings in Mohali. The trend continued on Friday as SRH defeated KKR in match 19. With this win, SRH has climbed up the points table to seventh position. KKR is at number 4 after the Eden loss.
Player of the match – Harry Brook – slammed maiden IPL ton after KKR won the toss and asked SRH to bat first. Brook’s 100 is the first century of this season of the Indian Premier League. He scored 100 off 55 deliveries and remained not out. Bought at 2022 auction for a staggering Rs 13.25 crore, the young English player finally cracked the T20 code at Eden. Right from the word go, Brook proved that he was here to stay. He smashed two sixes and four boundaries in the first three overs of the innings.
While other batters such as Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi didn’t get any success, captain Aiden Markram played a fine captain’s knock as he scored a blazing fifty accelerating the Sunrisers’ momentum. Abhishek Sharma and Klaasen added more runs during the death overs. At the end of innings, SRH posted a mammoth total of 228 and set a target of 229 runs for the Knights.
KKR started off the grand chase and lost their opener Gubaz in the very first over. Next to go was Venkatesh Iyer. Soon, Sunil Narine was sent packing. Jamaican all-rounder Andre Russell, who suffered cramps in Kolkata heatwave and yet managed to strike three wickets earlier in the evening didn’t do much with the bat.
Then came KKR skipper Nitish rana. Till the time he was at the crease, KKR were in the game. He made 75 off 41 balls. Rinku Singh, the star of the last miracle win for KKR, also did well. He made 58 off 31 but it wasn’t enough. Singh smashed four fours and four sixes and every time he hit a ball, the entire Eden was chanting ‘Rinku, Rinku’. But these heroics fell short in front of the giant score and SRH emerged as the winner defeating KKR by 23 runs.