Kolkata Knight Riders won their first match of IPL 2024 by 4 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to chase their target of 209 runs. Heinrich Klaasen’s destructive 63 runs of 29 balls could not win the match for the visitors. Andre Russell smashed a 25-ball 63 and picked two wickets to help Kolkata Knight Riders win over SRH.
Batting first KKR made 208 in their innings. Though Cummins leading SRH had a balanced bowling includes Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Washington Sundar, Russell-storm made all calculations meaning less. Russell’s brutal unbeaten 64 off 25 balls with three fours and seven sixes and Phil Salt’s more pragmatic 54 off 40 balls guided KKR to 208 for seven in 20 overs. Rinku Singh also contributed with quick 23 runs off 15 balls. Left-arm pacer T Natarajan was their most successful bowler for SRH with three wickets.
Chasing 208, Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma started comfortably. But they both returned after scoring 32 runs. At the halfway mark, Hyderabad were right in it and the duty was on Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram to keep up with the required run rate. Neither of them was able to break free against the Kolkata spinners. Then Heinrich Klassen went berserk mode. The Proteas batter took matters into his own hands and later found support from Shahbaz Ahmed to take his side. He took down Chakaravarthy’s final over for 21 runs. Klaasen and Shahbaz then attacked Starc, smoking him for 26 runs. Needing 60 off the final three overs, SRH got the equation down to 13 off the last one, but Harshit Rana held his own to give KKR their victory by 4 runs. Heinrich Klaasen scored 63 runs off 29 balls with 8 sixes, highest in any IPL innings. Andre Russel declared Player of the Match due to his all-round performance.