IPL 2023: Sunrisers Hyderabad batters fail to deliver again, suffer five-run loss against KKR

Hosts lose to Kolkata Knight Riders by five runs despite a decent show with the ball

Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batters once again came a cropper as they failed to chase down a modest total to suffer a five-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal on Thursday.

After restricting the visitors to 171/9 in 20 overs, Sunrisers’ batters failed miserably as they ended up at 166/8, to suffer their sixth loss from nine matches. Defending nine from the last over, Varun Chakravarthy bowled a sensational over conceding just three runs to take Knight Riders to their fourth win of the season.

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Chasing the target, Mayank hit Vaibhav Arora for a couple of boundaries and Harshit Rana for a six in the third over but he was dismissed in the same over for a 11-ball 18 (2×4, 1×6). Shardul Thakur sent Abhishek Sharma to the pavilion cheaply. Impact player Rahul Tripathi looked promising hitting Andre Russell for a couple of boundaries and a six before being caught deep fine-leg in the same over after a 9-ball 20-run knock as hosts made 53/3 in first six overs.

Harry Brook’s poor run continued as he was adjudged lbw for a duck after left-arm spinner Anukul Roy took a review. With his wicket, the hosts were in trouble at 75/4 after 10 overs. Heinrich Klaasen then smashed Roy for a couple of sixes in the 11th over while Markram hit Chakravarthy for consecutive boundaries next. Klaasen lofted Rana for a six over fine-leg in the next over to bring down the equation to 58 off 42.

However, Thakur broke the 70-run partnership dismissing Klaasen (36 off 20) when the South African was holed out at the cow corner. Captain Aiden Markram (41 off 40) was the next to depart as he was caught at long-off in the 17th over trying to smash Arora’s short ball.

Arora returned in the 19th over to remove Marco Jansen (1) off the very first ball. But Samad and Bhuvneshwar Kumar managed 12 runs off the over to reduce the required runs to 9 off the final over.

Bowling the last over, Varun Chakravarty dismissed Abdul Samad (21) on the third ball. Samad, trying to clear the mid-wicket boundary, was caught by Roy. With seven needed off the last three, Varun conceded just one run to power his side to victory.

Earlier, Jansen provided a perfect start with a double strike in the second over dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) and Venkatesh Iyer. Gurgaz (0) was caught by Harry Brook at mid-on while Iyer (7) gloved a bouncer to wicketkeeper Klaasen. Karthik Tyagi, who was playing his first match of the season in place of Umran Malik, then dismissed dangerous Jason Roy (20 off 19) as the visitors scored 49/3 in the powerplay.

Rinku Singh hit Markram for consecutive boundaries in the ninth over while captain Rana joined the party hitting Tyagi for a boundary and two sixes in the next over to take their side to 90/3 at the half-way stage. However, Markram accounted for his counterpart Rana (42 off 31; 3×4, 3×6) to end the fourth wicket partnership of 61 (40 balls). He took a brilliant catch running backwards in his own bowling.

Next man in Andre Russell looked in ominous touch hitting Markram and Markande for a six each. But Markande got rid of the dangerous Caribbean in the next over when the batter edged him to give a simple catch to Natarajan at the point after making a 15-ball 24 (1×4, 2×6). T Nataraj then removed Shardul Thakur in the 18th over and came back in the 20th over to end Rinku Singh’s stay (46 off 35). He then ran Harshit Rana out as Sunrisers conceded 42 runs in the final five overs for four wickets.