Fifties from Venkatesh Iyer and Angkrish Raghuvanshi propelled Kolkata Knight Riders to a robust 200/6 before a concerted bowling effort defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 80 runs at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.
Kolkata Knight Riders' Venkatesh Iyer, Vaibhav Arora, and Varun Chakaravarthy delivered outstanding performances as the defending champions secured a convincing 80-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2025 match on Thursday. After being sent in to bat, Venkatesh Iyer (60 off 29) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (50 off 32) shouldered the bulk of the scoring responsibilities, while Ajinkya Rahane (38) and Rinku Singh (32) also made valuable contributions as KKR posted 200 for six. In response, SRH were bowled out for a mere 120 in 16.4 overs, with Heinrich Klaasen top-scoring with a 21-ball 33. Vaibhav Arora (3/29) made early inroads into the top-order, while Varun Chakaravarthy (3/22) wrapped up the tail.
KKR suffered early setbacks, losing openers Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock in quick succession, before captain Ajinkya Rahane and Raghuvanshi steadied the ship with a solid partnership. However, it was not until Iyer gained momentum after a slow start alongside Rinku that KKR truly gained traction in the game. The formidable total on a two-paced track ultimately proved insurmountable, exceeding initial expectations. KKR's seam bowling duo, Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana, delivered a devastating opening spell, dismissing SRH's top-order batsmen Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, and Ishan Kishan cheaply within three overs. Thereafter, SRH struggled to regain ground, allowing KKR's bowlers to capitalize and secure a decisive victory with a substantial NRR boost.
Arora is the Player of the Match - keep myself prepared to come in as the impact sub. I assess what the pitch is doing from outside, whether there's swing, whether the ball is holding. Yorkers and cutters are important in the fifth-sixth over as the ball doesn't swing by then. We plan for different batters in our meetings depending on who the batter is, whether he is likely to give the charge.
Rahane : This game was really important for us. WInning by big margin was crucial. Even we wanted to bowl on this wicket. When we lost two early wickets, wanted to consolidate till 6 overs - play with intent but play cricketing shots. And then when we have wickets in hand, guys down the order can get as many runs as possible. Happy with the batting unit. Last two games were not upto the mark for us. But we learned a lot from our mistakes. This is a great example for us as a batting unit. Rinku and Venkatesh - those guys can play brilliant shots. Ramandeep was sitting in the dugout, Dre was sitting and Moeen was also ready. It was about playing normal till 15 overs and take it on. Initially we thought 170-180 in the surface would be good. Slower balls were gripping. We had three quality spinners. Moeen, unfortunately, couldn't bowl tonight. Sunny and Varun bowled really well. Credit goes to Vaibhav and Harshit as well.
Pat Cummins: Not a great time. I think this was gettable, pretty good wicket. Left too many in the field and then fell well short in the end. We need to be realistic, three games in a row it hasn’t come off for us. We need to maybe look back at whether we could have chosen better options. Our batters are best when they take the game on, but looking back maybe we could have taken different options. (On what went wrong) It was mainly our fielding, overall bowling wasn’t bad. We should have taken a few catches and stopped them a bit earlier. (On Adam Zampa not playing) We only bowled 3 overs of spin, the ball wasn’t gripping for us too. So opted to go without him. (On how he will deal with this loss) I will probably address it on whether we could have used different options, but don’t want to dwell too much on it. We go back to a venue we know so well now.
