KKR’s first game of the season marks the return of two fine leaders, skipper Shreyas Iyer and mentor Gautam Gambhir
The outfit also begins its IPL campaign at home after four editions
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bowl first
KKR pacer Mitchell Starc, returning to the IPL after nine years, rang the ceremonial bell at the iconic stadium alongside West Indian great Ian Bishop
KKR co-owner and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was in attendance at the Eden Gardens for the team’s campaign opener
KKR lost Sunil Narine in the second over with a direct hit from Shahbaz Ahmed catching him short of his crease. It was also some lazy running from the Windies veteran
Shreyas Iyer had a return to forget with the bat, dismissed for a duck by T. Natarajan who also dismissed Venkatesh Iyer in the same over
Phil Salt’s half century steadied the ship for the Knight Riders. Salt, originally unsold in the IPL 2024 auction, was brought in as Jason Roy’s replacement
He had support from Ramandeep Singh whose quickfire 17-ball 35 bailed KKR out of trouble
Andre Russell then stitched an 81-run partnership with Rinku Singh where the former scored 62 runs. That phase saw seven big sixes off the West Indian’s bat
Dre Russ’ weekend fireworks gave IPL 2024 its first 200-plus score with KKR recovering remarkably to finish with 208 on the board in 20 overs
Abhishek Sharma, coming in as the impact sub in place of Natarajan, opened with Mayank Agarwal
A frosty send off followed Harshit Rana’s dismissal of Mayank Agarwal. Abhishek Sharma fell soon after
Aiden Markram and Rahul Tripathi managed decent starts but could not convert those into big scores. The equation came down to 94 runs needed in the last six overs.
Heinrich Klaasen pulled off his own variety of Russell magic with a 29-ball 63, bringing an impossible target down to just 13 runs needed off the last over
Mitchell Starc had a tough start to his night, conceding 22 runs in his first two overs.
Starc finally finished with 53 runs conceded in total and no wickets to his name, having faced Klaasen at his destructive best
Just when SRH started breathing a bit easy, Harshit Rana turned the match around, removing Shahbaz and Klaasen in the span of three deliveries and eventually sealing a 4-run win