England’s rising star smashes an unbeaten 100 off just 55 balls as SRH win a high-scoring game at Eden Gardens.
It was yet another full house at Eden Gardens, but the home fans were left disappointed as Kolkata Knight Riders lost by 23 runs to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday. Led by a stunning batting display by young Englishman Harry Brook, who smashed an unbeaten 55-ball hundred, the Sunrisers posted their second-highest score in IPL history — 228/4. Chasing the mammoth target, KKR were always playing catch up with the run rate, and despite valiant fifties from skipper Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh, the home team came up short on the day registering 205/7. It was SRH’s second win of this season.
Harry Brook was trolled online after failing in the first three games of the season. But he answered his critics in style when he raced away to become the first IPL centurion of this season. He was in the mood for a big score right from the word go, with his first 31 runs coming off just 11 balls as he dealt in boundaries and sixes when Umesh Yadav and Lockie Ferguson were bowling in the Powerplay.
And then, just when it seemed like Brook was beginning to slow down while nearing his fifty, he exploded in the 15th over and did not allow KKR to claw back into the game. With pace on the ball, courtesy of Lockie Ferguson, Brook hit 23 runs in the over and managed to put pressure back on KKR.
He reached his 100 at almost a strike rate of 200, hitting 12 sixes and three fours on the way, and showed everyone why the Hyderabad-based franchise forked out a whopping Rs 13.25 crore at the 2023 mini-auction.
2⃣nd win on the bounce for @SunRisers! 👏 👏
The @AidzMarkram-led unit beat the spirited #KKR in a run-fest to bag 2⃣more points 👍 👍
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/odv5HZvk4p#TATAIPL | #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/WSOutnOOhC
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 14, 2023
On the night, against spin, Brook recorded a strike rate of 117, but against pace, it jumped to 253. Of the 100 runs he scored, 66 came off pace (nine fours, three sixes, four dots), while 34 were scored against spin (three fours, six dots).
At the end of the innings, the batter himself admitted when he told broadcasters, “I’ve had a bit of trouble with spin, but I wanted to use the Powerplay to my advantage. So in the middle overs, I wanted to rotate the strike and let the other boys do the hitting.”
Attack MODE 🔛!
4⃣ Fours, 2⃣ Sixes ⚡️ ⚡️
That 2⃣8⃣-run over when @NitishRana_27 went after Umran Malik 💪 💪 #TATAIPL | #KKRvSRH | @KKRiders
Watch 🎥 🔽https://t.co/XNnhozvcs5
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 14, 2023
Markram plays his part
Aiden Markram stamped his authority while leading from the front and scoring a fifty in 25 balls. Coming at number four, he never let the pressure get to him and kept finding gaps at will. Markram was particularly lethal on young leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, who had a forgettable day going at 11 runs per over. After his departure, it was Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen who played a couple of delightful cameos that took the score past 200.
When KKR won the toss, their captain Nitish Rana said there had been dew at the Eden Gardens. But chasing 229, the Knights were rocked right at the start by the SRH seamers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar started with a wicket maiden in the first, getting rid of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and then South African medium pacer Marco Jansen took two wickets in two balls, that of Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine.
KKR were three down for just 20 and it seemed like the night could turn into a horror show for them as their fragile top order was exposed once again.
But their captain Rana smashed 28 off Umran Malik’s first over to lead a fight back. It was Rana’s clean hitting that kept KKR in the hunt in the mammoth chase despite wickets falling at the other end. His blistering innings of 75 from 48 balls featured five fours and six sixes. With 32 needed in the last over, last game’s miracle man Rinku Singh wasn’t on strike and despite his unbeaten 58 off 31, the game was beyond KKR.
News Source:- The Indian EXPRESS
