IPL 2021 Highlights, SRH vs KKR: Pandey's fifty goes in vain as KKR win by 10 wickets

FOUR! Tripathi is settled and clearing the boundaries with no difficulties. Another four from the young man, towards deep backward square leg.

All-rounder Vijay Shankar comes into the attack and replaces Mohammad Nabi. Shankar has got a bigger responsibility here, i.e., scalping a wicket or two to slow down the KKR juggernaut

Kolkata Knight Riders are 69/1 after 9 overs. Nitish Rana is batting on 42 and Rahul Tripathi is unbeaten on 12.

Hardik Pandya: 3

Jofra Archer: 2

Rahul Tewatia: 2

Rashid Khan: 2

Shardul Thakur: 2

What a Shot! Tripathi goes for a biggie. The ball was drifting away from the off stumps and Rahul gets on his knees to club it over long-off for six.

Rashid Khan does the magic again. The Afghan leggie struck off the last ball of his first over with a wrong'un. Gill goes for a swipe but loses his balance and gets bowled. KKR: 53/1 after 7 overs.

SRH has finally deployed Rashid Khan into the attack. the Afghan leggie will look to break the 50-plus run stand between Gill and Rana.

Six overs are gone and KKR are 50 for no loss. Nitish Rana (36*) and Shubman Gill (14*) have given an amazing start to the Eoin Morgan-led side.

The Kolkata Knight Riders bring up 50 runs on the board in 5.4 overs. Rana is batting at 36 while Gill is unbeaten at 14.

With 6 fours already in this innings, Nitish Rana has completed 100 fours for KKR

T Natarajan comes into the attack and gets hammered like Bhuvi and Sandeep. Shubman Gill faces the first ball and tonks it over long-on for six. Clean hit.

Nitish Rana seems to be enjoying playing against the SRH pacers. Sandeep Sharma comes into the attack and Rana goes after him with a hat-trick of boundaries.

FOUR! Gill joins the party and slams his first boundary in this game. Good wrist work to to drive the ball through midwicket

That's the second one Rana in the second over from Sandeep Sharma. Half-volley and Nitish Rana plays the lofted drive for boundary.

That's where experience helps. Bhuvneshwar makes an immediate comeback after getting punished for a boundary off the first ball. He bowls 5 consecutive dot balls and ended the over with just four runs. KKR - 4/0 after 1 over.

Amazing start for the KKR. Nitish Rana faces the first ball and drives it through covers for a boundary. Superb Shot!

KKR openers Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill are out to bat. Bhuvneshwar Kumar begins the attack for SRH.

"I'm in better shape compared to last year, so I'm hoping for a better performance than last year. I can put my body on the line because I'm a lot fitter. Morgan is relaxed and he gives us all the freedom, only intervenes if it's not working. If we have the upper hand against any team, we must go for the kill. We fell short by a few runs last year, and just lost the big moments and fell short marginally. We must minimize our errors and do well. The good thing is that we are back in India. The UAE was lovely, but when you talk IPL, you talk India. I am used to these conditions, and I'm looking forward to playing here," says Andre Russell.

KKR and SRH have encountered 19 times in IPL. KKR have won 12 times, including the TIED+W match and lost 7. KKR’s win% against SRH is their 2nd best as compared to their win% against other active IPL teams. Also, in recent times, KKR have won 3 out of their last 4 encounters in IPL. Against SRH as well, KKR is the team with 2nd best win% among all the active teams in IPL.

Jonny Bairstow in two IPL seasons for SRH has aggregated 790 runs in 21 innings and is the 5th highest run getter for SRH in IPL. Bairstow goes after the spinners and has a strike rate of 145.48. Bairstow has scored 160 runs in 4 innings vs KKR which includes a fifty and two scores of 30s.

Russell is also only one of the 5 allrounders in the world who has the double of 5,000+ runs and 250+ wickets across T20s. Moreover, throughout the IPL, Russell’s SR of 182.33 is still the best among the batters who have faced 125 balls in the tournament. He has hit 126 sixes for KKR in IPL – 5 the most by a foreign player for a team in IPL.

• 88: Eoin Morgan is 88 runs away from completing 7,000 runs across T20s.

• 23: Dinesh Karthik is 23 fours away from completing 400 fours in IPL.

• 6: Dinesh Karthik is 6 fours away from completing 600 fours across T20s.

• 80: Dinesh Karthik is 80 runs away from completing 1,000 runs for KKR in IPL.

• 9: Dinesh Karthik is 9 fours away from completing 100 fours for KKR in IPL.

• 2: Harbhajan Singh is 2 catches away from completing 50 catches in IPL.

• 7: Karun Nair is 7 sixes away from completing 100 sixes across T20s.

• 1: Kuldeep Yadav is 1 match away from completing 100 matches across T20s.

• 4: Nitish Rana is 4 fours away from completing 100 fours for KKR in IPL.

• 3: Nitish Rana is 3 sixes away from completing 50 sixes for KKR in IPL.

• 12: Rahul Tripathi is 12 runs away from completing 1,000 runs in IPL.

• 5: Rahul Tripathi is 5 fours away from completing 100 fours in IPL.

• 13: Rahul Tripathi is 13 sixes away from completing 50 sixes in IPL.

• 7: Rahul Tripathi is 7 catches away from completing 50 catches across T20s.

• 8: Sheldon Jackson is 8 sixes away from completing 50 sixes across T20s.

• 61: Shubman Gill is 61 runs away from completing 1,000 runs in IPL.

• 13: Shubman Gill is 13 fours away from completing 100 fours in IPL.

• 108: Sunil Narine is 108 runs away from completing 1,000 runs in IPL.

• 107: Sunil Narine is 107 runs away from completing 1,000 runs for KKR across leagues (IPL+CLT20).

• 4: Sunil Narine is 4 sixes away from completing 150 sixes across T20s.

• 5: Sunil Narine is 5 wickets away from completing 150 wickets for KKR across leagues (IPL+CLT20).

• 2:With 2 more T20 matches Warner will be playing his 300th T20 match. He will be 32nd player to play 300 T20

matches.

• 176: runs Warner needs to complete 10000 T20 runs, he will be the 4th batsman to achieve this feast after C

Gayle, K Pollard and S Malik.

• 6: more catches Warner needs to complete 150 catches in T20s.

• 5: Warner needs 5 sixes to complete 200 sixes in IPL.

• 88: runs Warner needs to complete 1000 runs vs KKR in IPL, he would be the 1st player to score a 1000 runs vs

any team in IPL.

• 19: Bairstow needs 19 more sixes to complete 50 sixes in IPL.

• 8: more wickets T Natarajan needs to complete 50 T20 wickets.

• 7: Pandey needs 7 more sixes to complete 100 sixes in IPL.

• 21: Saha needs 21 more runs to complete 2000 IPL runs.

• 3: Mujeeb needs 3 more wickets to complete 150 wickets in T20s.

"When you're closer, there's less grass, and it's very dry - black soil surface. It'll be important how the spinners bowl, it'll be difficult for them in the powerplay given the short square boundaries," reckons Murali Karthik on Star Sports

Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy

Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Shakib-al-Hasan, Pat Cummins