In the third match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Eden Gardens on Saturday, the Kolkata Knight Riders narrowly defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs with to a masterful final over bowled by Harshit Rana, who stopped Heinrich Klassen, who was hitting sixty-three off just 29 balls.
Klassen pulled SRH from the brink of defeat to almost over the finish line in an exciting last-ball finish that will never be forgotten, but Rana stole it from them. Klassen and Shahbaz Ahmed hit 21 and 26 runs in the following two overs to reduce the score from 60 off 18 balls to 13 off 6 balls. With their outstanding strokeplay, they set the pulse racing by scoring 81 runs in the final five overs.
With seven needed off five balls, Klassen hit Rana for a six off the opening delivery. However, KKR rallied after conceding a single and sent back Shahbaz Ahmed, who was caught by Shreyas Iyer. Marco Jansen took a single and gave Klassen the opportunity to strike for a six-and-seal victory, but it was still SRH’s match to lose. Suyash Sharma accomplished an incredible feat at short third to get rid of Klassen, and the Kolkata Knight Riders managed to secure a thrilling victory.
After Pat Cummins won the toss and asked KKR to bat first on a surface that appears full of runs, SRH staged a fantastic chase of KKR’s 208/7, but they were lost by four runs at the conclusion of their 20 overs on 204/7, built on an unbeaten 64 off 25 balls by Andre Russell and 54 by Phil Salt.
As they attempted to chase a massive mark, Sunrisers Hyderabad got off to a strong start thanks to a partnership of 60 runs between Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma. In the Power-play, SRH made up for Agarwal’s departure with 65 runs after taking a slow start and reaching 50 off 43 balls. Agarwal was the first to depart, scoring 32 off 21 balls with a short delivery to Rinku Singh off Harshit Rana.
Similar to Abhishek Sharma, he scored 32 off 19 balls before Varun Chakravarthy caught him off Andre Russell. Aiden Markram (18 off 13), Abdul Samad (15 off 11), and Rahul Tripathi (20 off 20) all got starts but were unable to turn them into significant scores as the Kolkata Knight Riders made effective use of the short ball. They made some excellent catches in the field, but in the 17th over, they were reduced to 145/5.
But as SRH came dangerously close to pulling off the fourth-highest successful run chase in IPL history, Heinrich Klaasen hit a flurry of sixes and, along with Shahbaz Ahmad, began an improbable surge towards victory.
They scored 21 runs off the 18th over with Varun Chakravarthy falling victim to two sixes hit by Klaasen and one six from Shjahbaz, with 60 needed from the final three overs.
The Australian pacer Mitchell Starc was hit for 26 runs in the next over by Klassen, who hit two massive sixes in the midweek area and a third over cover. SRH now needed 13 runs from the final six deliveries.
After Klaasen smashed a massive six off Harshit Rana’s opening delivery, the spinner got the last laugh as he delivered an outstanding over to dismiss Klassen and Shadab Ahmed and give the Kolkata Knight Riders a four-run triumph.
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