IPL 2023: Flying high on confidence, KKR to take on SRH

KOLKATA: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will face each other in the 19th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday.

KKR is coming to this match after their terrific win against Gujarat Titans on the last ball.

On the other hand, SRH also had a comprehensive victory in their last game against Punjab Kings.

In the chase of 205 runs, KKR was reduced to 28/2, but skipper Nitish Rana (45 off 29 balls with four boundaries and three sixes) put on a hundred-run stand for the third wicket with Venkatesh Iyer, who scored 83 in 40 balls, which consisted of eight fours and five sixes.

Dismissal of these two set batters and Rashid's hat-trick put KKR on the backfoot at 155/7.

The equation came down to 29 runs in the final over. Rinku Singh came through with a clutch cameo, hitting five successive sixes in the last over to seal what was once an improbable win for KKR. Rinku scored 48* in 21 balls, consisting of one four and six sixes.

Rinku was given the 'Player of the Match' award for his unbelievable match-winning cameo. Sunil Narine was the pick of the bowlers for KKR, taking 3/33 in four overs.

Suyash Sharma also continued his solid performance and took one wicket. Umesh Yadav was left wicketless.

On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad won comfortably against Punjab Kings in Hyderabad by 8 wickets.

With the contribution of Rahul Tripathi's 74* unbeaten off 48 balls and Aiden Markram's 37* unbeaten off 21 balls chased down 144 runs in 17.1 overs. In the bowling unit, Umran Malik's pace bowling and Mayank Markhande's spin restricted PBKS to a low score.

Markhande being the pick of the bowler from the Hyderabad side took four wickets giving just 15 runs whereas Malik bagged two.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar got one wicket and Marco Jansen got two scalps.

The last time, these two teams faced off was in the 2022 IPL in Pune where KKR won the match by 54 runs.

For Kolkata, Andre Russell had given an all-round performance by scoring 49* in 28 balls and taking a three-wicket haul.

Tim Southee and Umesh Yadav had also taken two and one scalps respectively.

Whereas from the Hyderabad side, Aiden Markram and Abhishek Sharma were top run scores.

Umran Malik was the pick of the bowlers by taking three wickets.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen had taken one wicket each. SRH and KKR have played 23 matches where Kolkata won 15 while 8 games were won by Hyderabad.