Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) finished their campaign with a comprehensive 110-run win against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday, May 25.
On the back of Heinrich Klaasen’s century and Travis Head’s fifty, SRH posted the third-highest team total in IPL history – 278/3. In reply, KKR were bowled out for 168 as Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, and Harsh Dubey bagged three wickets apiece.
Talking Points
1. Heinrich Klaasen’s 37-ball ton lights up Kotla
Heinrich Klaasen played like a man possessed after being promoted to No. 3 in the batting order. He smashed the KKR bowlers to all corners of the Arun Jaitley Stadium to notch up a 37-ball century – the joint third-fastest in IPL history. The South African wicketkeeper-batter hit seven fours and nine sixes during his unbeaten knock of 105 runs from 39 deliveries. His 83-run partnerships with Travis Head and Ishan Kishan off 35 and 36 balls, respectively, blew KKR away.
2. Travis Head plays a blinder
Travis Head gave Sunrisers a whirlwind start after Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first. The left-handed batter forged a 92-run stand, which came off just 41 balls, with Abhishek Sharma for the first wicket. Head hit six fours and as many sixes and looked good for his second IPL century. However, Sunil Narine sent him packing for a 40-ball 76 in the 13th over.
3. Jaydev Unadkat, Harsh Dubey, Eshan Malinga shine with the ball
It is much easier to bowl when the batters have set a 279-run target for a victory. However, credit should be given to the discipline showed by the SRH troika of Unadkat, Dubey, and Malinga. Unadkat took the wickets of Narine and Ajinkya Rahane inside the powerplay before coming back at the backend to dismiss Manish Pandey, KKR’s top-scorer on the night.
Dubey, on the other hand, got some purchase of the track and took the wickets of Rinku Singh and Andre Russell off consecutive deliveries. After getting hit for back-to-back sixes by Ramandeep Singh, the left-arm spinner dismissed him with a peach. Meanwhile, Malinga dismissed Quinton de Kock, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, and Harshit Rana.
Funniest Memes from SRH vs KKR Mid-Innings of Match 68
Who Said What?
Ajinkya Rahane, KKR (Losing Captain)
I thought they batted really well, Yes, we made few errors while bowling, but the way they batted, they capitalised on all the loose balls and also hit all the good balls as well. Credit goes to SRH batters, their intent was really great. We did discuss about bowling slower balls, bowling wider, bowling wide slower balls as well but sometimes if the bowlers don’t execute the plan really well, then batters like Klaasen and all the SRH batters… they batted really well. We were short on our execution part but also made lot many errors throughout the innings as a bowling unit. Throughout the season, we had our moments, we had our chances, 2-3 close games which we thought we didn’t play well as a team, as a unit. Apart from that, we tried our best, we gave our best. A format like this, you got to be switched on every time. This format is really tough, this IPL is really tough. As a team, we had those chances, we had those moments, we would have been probably number one or two in the table. But, no regrets, lots to learn from this season. All the players tried their best, gave their best. We’ll come back really stronger next year.
Pat Cummins, SRH (Winning Captain)
Amazing finish. The last few games of the season, lots of things clicked and it was scary to watch that kind of batting. With the calibre of the players we have, we can’t play any worse than what we did earlier. With the players we have, we should be making the finals, this year we didn’t. We get wickets like here, we got to max out and get 250-260 and other ones where we need to graft and get to 170 which we didn’t. Quite a few people got opportunities, we looked at each one of them when selecting a team, but couldn’t fit them in. Really happy with the squad we have got, few players went with injures back home, we used 20 players.
Heinrich Klaasen, Player of the Match
The franchise spends a lot of money on this. We had a bad start and middle, we fought to turn it around in the last three games. Nice to give something back to them. There was individual pride as well. I didn’t go on in a few games, did so tonight. Plan was to go straight on this ground. I got my trajectory better, didn’t take on too many fielders. Pleased with that. I worked a lot on judging length, it’s getting me out a couple of times, so I’ve had to work on it in the nets a lot. After the powerplay is when I’d ideally go, but I get paid to do well whenever I go in.
