Back to the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the Sunrisers Hyderabad taking on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their opening match of the 2024 season, co-owner Kavya Maran went through a roller-coaster of emotions in the opener on Saturday. The thrilling contest saw the Knight Riders secure a 4-run win over the Sunrisers, but not before wicket-keeper batter Heinrich Klaasen nearly pulled off a heroic win for the Southern franchise. Needing 13 runs from the final over, Klaasen smoked a six on the first ball, but everything changed afterwards.
SRH’s co-owner, Kavya Maran, who always comes out to support her team, was jumping with joy seeing the first ball of the final over go for a six. But, KKR’s Harshit Rana made a stunning comeback in the remaining 5 balls of the over to secure the win for his team.
The emotions Kavya went through, from the first ball to the last, became one of the most talked-about topics among IPL fans on social media.
Day 1 of asking @JioCinema why we can’t have #KavyaMaran on a separate hero cam feed during the live stream on #SRH matchday!? pic.twitter.com/QkzCPdvMkR
— Saurav Shrivastava (@SaySaurav) March 23, 2024
Kavya Maran’s reaction after 19.1 and 19.5 in tonight’s match. pic.twitter.com/2YXVJgP7nZ
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 23, 2024
Recapping the match, put to bat first by SRH, KKR was reduced to 51/4 in 7.3 overs. However, a half-century by Phil Salt (54 in 40 balls, with three fours and three sixes) and an explosive knock by Ramandeep Singh (35 in 17 balls, with a four and four sixes) kept team’s run rate just fine, but still they were struggling at 119/6 in 13.5 overs.
An explosive 67-run partnership followed between Andre Rusell (64* in 25 balls, with three fours and seven sixes) and Rinku Singh (23 in 15 balls, with three fours), powering KKR to 208/7 in 20 overs. In the chase of 209 runs, SRH started off well with a 60-run opening stand between Mayank Agarwal (32 in 21 balls with four boundaries and a six) and Abhishek Sharma (32 in 19 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes).
The team lost their way and was soon 145/5 in 16.5 overs. However, Heinrich Klaasen (63 in 29 balls with eight sixes) and Shahbaz Ahmed (16 in five balls, with a four and two sixes) unreleased a barrage of sixes towards the end. 13 runs were needed in final over, but Harshit Rana (3/33) held his nerves, taking two wickets and defending the remaining runs.
With ANI inputs
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