Sports
Harshit, Russell star as Kolkata Knight Riders hold nerve in high-scoring thriller
Andre Russell (64* off 25) produced a death-overs power-hitting masterclass only to be matched by Heinrich Klassen (63 off 29) in Sunrisers Hydearbad’s 209-run chase but eventually it was Harshit Rana who defended 7 off the final 5 balls to help Kolkata Knight Riders clinch the final-ball thriller by four runs. Russell helped KKR plunder 85 in the last five overs to post the first 200-plus score of IPL 2024. In the see-sawing chase, Klaasen’s blinder brought SRH’s equation down from an improbable 60 off 18 to 13 off the final over before Harshit’s twin strikes eventually ended in a heartbreak for the visitors at the Eden Gardens.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 208/7 in 20 overs (Andre Russell 64*, Phil Salt 54, Ramandeep Singh 35, Rinku Singh 23; T Natarajan 3-32, Mayank Markande 2-39, Pat Cummins 1-32,) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 204/7 in 20 overs (Mayank Agrawal 32, Abhishek Sharma 32, Rahul Tripathi 20, Heinrich Klassen 63; Harshit Rana 3-33, Andre Russell 2-25, Varun Chakravarthi 1-55, Sunil Narine 1-19) by 4 runs