It’s not quite often when Rinku Singh is reduced to a mere spectator with someone else grabbing the limelight, but on Saturday, Andre Russell presented a trailer of his fiery best with a 25-ball 64 before raising his hands with the ball (2/25) to set the tone for Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) campaign with a narrow four-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a nail-biting Indian Premier League (IPL) contest at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The momentum tilted either way with Heinrich Klassen almost threatening to take the game away from the KKR’s clutches with a counter-attacking 29-ball 63, laced with 8 sixes before young Harshit Rana, tasked with the responsibility of defending 12 off the final six deliveries, kept his cool even after being smoked for a six on the first ball to come back strongly and defend the total for the home side.
But earlier, it was the Russell show that lifted KKR to a mammoth 208 for 7, after England wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt responded to the faith shown by the KKR team management despite the snub at the IPL mini-auction in December, as he got the home side off to a sensational start, slamming a 40-ball 54.
In response, Mayank Agarwal (32 off 21 balls) and Abhishek Sharma (32 off 19), who came in as an impact sub got Sunrisers Hyderabad off to a promising start in the chase of 209 as the opening pair stitched a 60-run stand lacing eight boundaries between themselves and three sixes. Harshit Rana and Russell, however, struck successively to reduce SRH to 71 for two.
The momentum further shifted towards the home side after Rahul Tripathi (20) and Aiden Markram (18) were dismissed in quick succession before Heinrich Klassen arrived in the middle to shoulder the responsibility of the chase. With the asking rate mounting to over 12, Klassen and Abdul Samad (15) raised a quick-fire 34-run stand before Russell once again pegged the visitors with the wicket of Samad.
In the last 12 months, no batter had hit sixes as frequently as Russell (6.1 balls per six), and Sunrisers’ Heinrich Klaasen (7.2) is second on the list, and he lived up to the billing, smoking Varun Chakravarthy for as many as four sixes before getting to a 25-ball 50, and together with Shahbaz Ahmed forged together a 58-run sixth wicket stand to take SRH to sniffing distance of the victory.
Earlier, during the KKR innings, Salt went full throttle dispatching Marco Jansen for a hat-trick of sixes in the second over, before the Sunrisers got some redemption when his opening partner Sunil Narine was run-out after a mix-up.
Thereafter, Sunrisers left-arm pacer T Natarajan wrecked KKR’s top order with the wickets of the incoming batters — Venkatesh Iyer (7) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (0) to reduce the hosts to 32 for 3, before leg-spinner Mayank Markande removed Nitish Rana for another single digit score to peg back the Purple & Gold brigade to 51 for 4 by the 8th over of the innings.
Ramandeep Singh then launched a counter-attack that put the hosts back on top. He hit four sixes and a four to slam 35 off 17 balls in a 54-run stand with Salt that came off just 29 deliveries. Ramandeep eventually fell to Sunrisers skipper Pat Cummins after which Salt got to his 38-ball half-century. However, soon after reaching the landmark, Salt departed for a 40-ball 54, leaving the finishing task to Rinku and Russell.
Rinku walked in as the city’s cult hero, slamming Cummins over mid-off first ball amid loud chants from the capacity crowd at the Eden. At the other end, Russell geared up in his trademark style, pummelling Markande for three sixes in the 16th over before getting a life on the final ball of the over as Aiden Markram’s diving low catch at long off proved to be inconclusive for the Smart Replay System.
In no time, the Rinku-Russell partnership flourished to 50 runs, and the West Indian closing on to his individual fifty by feasting on Bhuvneshwar Kumar to milk 26 runs from the 19th over before Rinku departed off the first ball of the final over after scoring a 15-ball 23, and thus ending the 81-run seventh wicket stand coming off mere 33 deliveries. With KKR already reaching 200 by then, Russell and new man Mitchell Starc (6 not out) ensured that the team got to the daunting total.