Kolkata Knight Riders survived Heinrich Klaasen’s scare to win a classic at home against SunRisers Hyderabad by four runs in match 3 of IPL 2024. While Klaasen smashed 63 off 29 balls, smacking eight sixes, Russell starred for KKR, hitting an unbeaten 64 off 25 balls and picking two wickets. Harshit Rana was the pick of the bowlers for the hosts, returning with three scalps.

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On his T20 captaincy debut, SRH’s Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to field first at Eden Gardens. 

After Phil Salt smashed Marco Jansen for three sixes in his first over, Shahbaz Ahmed’s direct throw sent Sunil Narine packing on two on the last ball. 

KKR lost two more wickets inside the Powerplay, including losing Captain Shreyas Iyer on a two-ball duck off T Natarajan.

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Nitish Rana got out on nine, bringing Ramandeep Singh on strike. Alongside Salt, who hit a fifty on his KKR debut, the pair added 54 runs for the fifth wicket. Both got out quickly soon after, only to see two dangerous strikers of the cricket ball – Rinku Singh and Andre Russell looking hungry for boundaries in their side’s first game of the season.

Russell began from where he left the last season, hunting each SRH bowler mercilessly. He took on the spinners first and later went after the seamers, mainly Bhuvneshwar Kumar, whacking each to all parts of the ground.  

Russell completed his fifty in 20 balls, finishing his innings on 64* off 25 balls, hitting seven massive sixes and three fours. He also completed 200 sixes in the tournament and became the quickest in terms of balls to achieve this. An 81-run stand for the seventh wicket saw KKR post 208 for seven in 20 overs.

Klaasen the superstar

Touring SunRisers Hyderabad side began their chase with a bang, with two Indian openers – Mayank Agarwal and Impact Player Abhishek Sharma adding 60 runs for the first wicket inside the Powerplay. Harshit got Mayank’s wicket and gave him a send-off. Abhishek Sharma departed soon after before the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy removed Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram, respectively.

Hard-hitter Abdul Samad got out on 15 off Russell before the star of the night – Heinrich Klaasen, put in the fifth gear and did a Russell against KKR. 

Despite the equation favouring the home side, Klaasen went berserk, smashing everyone to sixes deep into the crowd. The situation, however, changed in the penultimate over bowled by IPL’s most expensive buy – Mitchell Starc, who conceded four sixes to finish with 53 without picking a wicket in four overs. 

Rana’s last over saved KKR’s day, as he defended 13 to see his side home.

Suyash Sharma’s brilliant effort to hold off Klaasen’s catch did the job for Kolkata, as they began their season with a win.  

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