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Klaasen’s astonishing innings trumped by Russell’s brutal assault

cricket23 March 2024 18:37| © MWP
By:Patrick Compton
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Andre Russell © PhotoShelter

Heinrich Klaasen of the Sunrisers Hyderabad played an astonishing innings of 63 in 29 balls but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Kolkata Knight Riders from winning a Tata IPL thriller by four runs at an electric Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday.

KKR’s hero with the ball was Harshit Rana who defended 13 runs in the final over. 

Klaasen struck his first ball for six, but paceman Rana held his nerve to claim the key wickets of Klaasen and Shahbaz Ahmed as he led his team to a nailbiting victory.

Rana finished with the excellent figures of 3-33 in his four overs as KKR defended their total of 208 for seven by restricting Sunrisers to 204 for seven in the most dramatic of finishes.

That KKR reached their total was largely due to a blistering unbeaten 64 in 25 balls from player of the match Andre Russell, and at one stage it seemed they would canter to victory.

With three overs to go, the Sunrisers needed 60 but Klaasen and Shahbaz then took 47 off the next two overs delivered by Varun Chakravarthy and Mitchell Starc to set up what would have been the fourth highest successful run chase in IPL history.

It wasn’t to be.

Sunrisers began their chase brightly, with openers Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma putting on 60 in 5.3 overs.

But thereafter the KKR bowlers, led by a superb spell from former mystery spinner Sunil Narine (1-19 in four overs) restricted the visitors’ batters so successfully that it took an almost miraculous surge at the end to take them to the brink of victory.

Klaasen’s remarkable innings included eight sixes but he fell on the cusp of glory, edging a drive off Rana's penultimate ball to Suyash Sharma at short third man who took a fine diving catch over his shoulder.

Earlier, Russell hit seven sixes and three fours in his unbeaten 64 in 25 balls as he led a late-innings revival for his team that produced 85 runs off the final five overs, including an excellent final over that realised only eight runs from Sunrisers’ paceman T Natarajan who claimed 3-32 in his four overs.

Russell, who struck most of his runs via violent slog-sweeps through the leg side, was in unstoppable form, giving spectacular expression to the phrase “muscle from Russell” which is often used to describe his style.

His innings was all the more valuable as he came to the crease with his team on 119 for six at the end of the 14th over when opener Phil Salt was out.

Salt, a late replacement for Jason Roy who withdrew from the IPL, smashed 54 in 40 balls at the top of the order, providing most of the early momentum as wickets fell regularly at the other end as KKR fell to 51 for four at one point.

Salt was then joined by Ramandee Singh (35 off 17 balls) and the pair added 54 in 29 balls for the fifth wicket, setting up a remarkable onslaught from Russell and Rinku Singh (23 off 15) that realised 81 off 33 balls for the seventh wicket.

Both sides provided sensational finishes to their innings, but Russell’s effort turned out to be just that little bit more effective than Klaasen’s.

KKR were excellent in the field with Marco Jansen, who had a disappointing evening with the ball, conceding 40 off three overs, taking a brilliant diving catch in the deep to get rid of Salt, while skipper Pat Cummins and spinner Mayank Markanda also took fine catches.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Venkatesh Iyer, Phil Salt (wk), Shreyas Iyer (capt), Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen,Pat Cummins (capt), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan

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