IPL 2022: SRH thrashes KKR by seven wickets

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s facile seven-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL encounter here on Friday was built on Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram’s breezy batting displays, as well as the pacers’ outstanding performance.

T Natarajan (3/37), Umran Malik (2/27), Marco Jansen (1/26), and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/37) led the SRH pace unit in limiting KKR to 175 for 8.

Tripathi (71 off 37 balls) and Aiden Markram (68 not out of 36 balls) then delivered aggressive knocks to help SRH win for the third time in a row with 13 balls to spare.

Nitish Rana led KKR with 54 runs, while Andre Russell remained unbeaten with 49.

SRH has now won three of their last five games, while KKR has now lost three of their last six.

With the green surface working against the spinners, Sunrisers’ Tripathi ripped apart KKR’s spin-heavy bowling unit.

Tripathi smacked Varun Chakravarthy for a four and two back-to-back sixes in the ninth over, scoring 18 runs against his former franchise. He hit his first fifty of the season after only 21 balls.

Tripathy found an able ally in Markram, who hammered six fours and four sixes and took it upon himself to get his side over the line when the former was out.

After deciding to bat, Jansen took advantage of the bounce and swing on offer to get the job done in the second over, dismissing Aaron Finch (7). Natarajan then bowled a brilliant fifth over in which he took two wickets.

As KKR dropped to 31 for 3, Natarajan delivered a wonderful length ball, pitched just outside off, to dismiss Venkatesh Iyer (6) with the flamboyant Sunil Narine (6) following his teammate a few balls later.

Kane Williamson introduced spin, but left-armer Jagadeesha Suchith (1/32) struggled with his line.

The young Malik then struck again, dismissing Shreyas Iyer (28) in the 10th over and Sheldon Jackson in the 11th (7).

When Malik noticed Iyer walking across the pitch, he launched a blistering 148.8kmph yorker through the blockhole to end the Knight Riders captain’s innings.

Rana, on the other hand, kept the scoreboard ticking over with a 36-ball knock that included both singles and boundaries.

Six fours and two maximums were hammered by Rana. He was a part of two 39-run stands, one with skipper Iyer and the other with Russell.

However, Natarajan cut short his stay in the middle in the 18th over, as SRH broke the potentially dangerous combination.

Russell hit four boundaries and two sixes in his 25-ball innings, including two in the final over. In the last five overs, the West Indian assisted KKR in scoring 55 runs.