SRH convincingly defeated KKR by 7 wickets with more than 2 overs remaining. SRH management, which is quite new to IPL, has now started making some serious progress Legendary Brian Lara and speedster Dale Steyn are looking threatening as the team has started to gel.
Captain Kane Williamson would be happy as the team is looking for a force to reckon with and showing glimpses of 2018 where the team went till the finals.
SRH bowlers restricted KKR to a reasonably low score
SRH bowlers broke the back of KKR’s batting lineup as they took 3 wickets in power-play overs.
The likes of T Natarajan and Umran Malik got their lines and lengths right and made life tougher for KKR batters. The likes of Shreyas also had a forgettable outing, while Nitish Rana and Andre Russell somehow took the total to a decent 175 runs. All in all, SRH made sure that KKR batters weren’t posting a total in the range of 190+ runs.
Rahul Tripathi on a beast mode
The former KKR batter made sure that his former franchise would rue letting him go. He was vintage as the way he smashed Chakravarthy was a treat to watch.
He made sure that SRH was chasing down the target with overs remaining and many wickets remaining in the tank. He scored 71 runs, in which there were 6 gigantic sixes, and looked in solid touch. All in all, Tripathi made the most of the form as bashing KKR’s bowlers is not a joke.
Aiden Markram, showcasing his talent and worth.
The South African batter who opens the batting for his national team has got himself accustomed to the middle order. Earlier in his innings, he played anchor and gave Tripathi complete freedom to go bang-bang.
Later, when Tripathi slowed down his innings, Markram proved to be a surprise package as he scored 68 runs, many of which were huge sixes. He remained unbeaten and made a statement that SRH is not an underdog team.
What went wrong for KKR?
KKR would be unhappy with their batting performance as posting 170 odd runs is unacceptable in the Tata IPL 2022 due to the dew factor and also because the boundaries are shorter on one side.
The top order failed miserably and, most importantly, there were high expectations from Aaron Finch, who is a World Cup Winning Captain of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Narine and Chakravarthy, the spinners, were ineffective for the majority of the innings.
What lies ahead for SRH?
SRH would be happy as they have started to exceed their expectations; earlier by defeating CSK and now KKR, these two teams have won 6 titles between them. SRH know that they don’t have any heavyweights present, which is working in their favor as the likes of Tripathi and Markram are doing damage.
All in all, SRH is looking like a serious threat as they have got a pace expressman present in the form of Umran Malik and an impeccable bowler in T Natarajan.
