Sunrisers Hyderabad, in quintessential fashion, detonated into its IPL clash with Kolkata Knight Riders with an onslaught so ferocious it felt like the game might be over before it had properly begun. Boundaries flew, the scoreboard spiraled, and KKR was pushed to the brink as SRH went past the 100-run mark in a blink-and-you-miss-it 8.5 overs.
That chaos, stunningly and without warning, gave way for a remarkable collapse, courtesy an adamant spin chokehold by Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine that eventually set up a seven-wicket victory for the visitors at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday.
Travis Head lit up a sweltering afternoon. Four crisp boundaries – threaded through backward point, lofted over point, driven past mid-on, and whipped through square leg – in Vaibhav Arora’s opening over put SRH firmly on the front foot.
Despite losing Abhishek Sharma early, the Australian motored on to a blistering half-century in just 22 balls. But Varun had the last laugh, with a mishit promptly landing in Cameron Green’s hands at deep midwicket. While SRH eyed another 200-plus score, a stingy KKR happily played spoilsport.
It all began with a spectacular one-handed catch by sprinting Rovman Powell to dismiss Heinrich Klaasen. From then on, it was a forlorn procession back to the dugout for the home side. The only double ton one witnessed was Narine joining the 200 wickets club, the first overseas bowler to do so in the competition.
Seeing six wickets fall to spin, Pat Cummins opened the defence of a brittle 165 with Abhishek’s off-spin. Finn Allen then went for the jugular, smacking Cummins for 27 runs before holing out to Klaasen.
Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi then stitched a 84-run stand of calm assurance to guide the Knight Riders through a largely comfortable chase, the latter raising his half-century off 39 balls along the way.
SRH opted for an extra seamer in Sakib Hussain as its impact sub and huffed and puffed to turn the tide, but only delayed the inevitable, as Rinku Singh applied the finishing touch to a commanding victory that was secured with 10 balls to spare.
