Kolkata Knight Riders' innings stumbled at a point after losing four wickets in quick succession but Karthik's 9-ball 22 gave them a great finish.
Dinesh Karthik, the Kolkata Knight riders' wicket-keeper batsman was the crisis man for his side again after they lost four quick wickets as he smashed two fours and a six in his 9-ball 22-run innings to give his side a great finish to score 187 runs in their first innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Indian Premier League (IPL). Karthik's innings was the icing on the cake made by Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi, who both scored half-centuries helping KKR to recover from a slow start to take the attack to the SRH bowlers.
KKR had a great start as openers Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana scored 50 runs in the powerplay itself. However, Gill's scratchy innings came to an end soon after as Rashid Khan's googly went through his gate. After which, Rahul Tripathi coming in at No 3 took on the Sunrisers bowlers from the outside.
Whether it was the pace of Sandeep Sharma or Bhuvneshwar Kumar or the spin of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, Tripathi and Rana didn't leave any bowler and dispatched them to all parts of the park. Tripathi brought his fifty of just 28 balls, while Rana upped the run-rate after reaching his half-century.
Both the batsmen kept going hell for leather and took KKR's score beyond 140 in just 15 overs. However, Tripathi couldn't continue for long after his fifty as T Natarajan got rid of him. The wicket started a procession as KKR lost four wickets in just 14 runs and gave away all the advantage.
Natarajan's superb 19th over didn't help KKR's cause and they needed something special to end the innings on a high and Karthik just provided the same. His 22-run knock off just 9 balls was just the injection the KKR innings needed to cross the 180-run mark which they looked set for easily at one point.
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 "Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi")
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