Nitish Rana's Blazing Inning Thrusts Knight Riders To Maul Sunrisers

A fruitful and ferocious opening partnership helped Kolkata Knight Riders to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in match 3 of the IPL 2021, held at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Winning the toss, SRH called KKR to bat first, a decision that did not go well with the Hyderabad's expectation. KKR's top order, led by Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi, gave a cogent start to the team, with which the Eoin Morgan-led squad was able to post a reliable total of 187 runs. Rana produced a blazing knock of 80 runs off 56 deliveries while Tripathi bagged 29-ball 53-run. Chasing the target, SRH suffered early jolts as it lost two wickets, including of skipper David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha, at just 10 runs. Although Manish Pandey (61 runs) and Jonny Bairstow (55 runs) kept SRH's scoreboard in momentum, their knock could not propelled the team beyond 175 runs in 20 overs. Interestingly, this was the third consecutive victory of KKR over SRH in their IPL encounters.