Powered by a 94-run partnership between Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram, the Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League 2022 clash at the Brabourne Stadium on Friday.
Asked to bat first, KKR finished with a total of 175/8 in their 20 overs thanks to a 36-ball 54 by Nitish Rana and a 25-ball 49* by Andre Russell. T Natarajan (3/37) and Umran Malik (2/27) were the pick of the bowlers for Hyderabad.
In reply, the Sunrisers found themselves in a spot of bother when skipper Kane Williamson was dismissed in the sixth over after Abhishek Sharma, their other opener, fell early.
But Rahul Tripathi (71 off 37) then got together with Aiden Markram (68* off 36) to put on a brilliant stand for the third wicket. Tripathi was the aggressor and switched the momentum in SRH’s favour with some stunning strokeplay.
Hyderabad needed 43 runs to win when Tripathi was dismissed but they didn’t panic as Markram then added another crucial, unbeaten partnership with Nicholas Pooran (5* off 8) to help SRH finish with 176/3 in 17.5 overs.
The South African right-handed ended the match in style by hitting Pat Cummins for a four and consecutive sixes in three balls.
For Kolkata, Russell picked two wickets and Sunil Narine returned with fine figures of 0/23 from his four overs.