Kolkata: Harshit Rana bowled a brilliant final over to stop a rampaging Heinrich Klassen (63 off 29 balls) as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) snatched a thrilling four-run victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
It was a thrilling last-ball finish to remember as Klassen dragged SRH from the brink of defeat to almost over the line before Harshit took it away from them. From 60 off 18 balls, Klassen and Shahbaz Ahmed hammered 21 and 26 runs in the next two overs to make it 13 off six balls. They blazed 81 runs off the last five overs and set the pulse racing with their brilliant strokeplay.
Klassen hammered Harshit for a six off the first delivery and with seven needed off five balls, the medium-pacer conceded a single and sent back Shahbaz Ahmed to pull things back for KKR. But it was still SRH's match to lose as Marco Jansen took a single and gave Klassen the strike to hammer a six-and-seal victory. Suyash Sharma pulled off a superb catch at short third to dismiss Klassen and SRH skipper Pat Cummins failed to connect off the final ball.
SRH ended on 204/7 and fell short by four runs as they mounted a brilliant chase of KKR's 208/7 built on an unbeaten 64 off 25 balls by Andre Russell and 54 by opener Phil Salt after Cummins asked KKR to bat first.
Chasing a mammoth target, SRH made a good start with Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma raising 60 runs for the opening wicket partnership. SRH scored 65 runs in the Powerplay for the loss of Agarwal as they started cautiously and reached 50 off 43 balls. Agarwal was the first to go, hitting a short delivery to Rinku Singh off Harshit for 32 off 21 balls.
Abhishek Sharma too made 32 off 19 balls before he was caught by Varun Chakravarthy off Russell. Rahul Tripathi (20 off 20), Aiden Markram (18 off 13) and Abdul Samad (15 off 11) got starts but could not convert them into big scores as KKR used the short ball well. In the field, they pulled off some good catches as SRH were reduced to 145/5 in the 17th over.
But Klaasen struck a barrage of sixes and along with Shahbaz launched an unlikely charge towards victory as SRH nearly pulled off the fourth-highest successful run chase in IPL history.