Kolkata, April 3 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane stressed the significance of his team’s performance after their dominant 80-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Match 15 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday.
KKR's innings started on shaky ground, as Quinton de Kock (1) and Sunil Narine (7) fell cheaply. However, Rahane himself (38 off 27) and young Angkrish Raghuvanshi (50 off 32) steadied the ship, ensuring that KKR didn’t lose control.
"This game was really important for us, and winning with a margin - that was really crucial. Batting first, and losing the toss, we wanted to bowl first on this wicket. When we lost two wickets, the discussion was about consolidating and then when we have wickets in hand after 11-12 overs, guys lower down the order can score as many runs as possible. We learned a lot from our mistakes. It is about staying in the moment now. A great example for us (as a batting group) to learn from this game," said Rahane after the match.
The real momentum shift came in the final overs. Venkatesh Iyer (60 off 29) and Rinku Singh (32* off 17) unleashed a brutal assault in the death overs, adding 78 runs in the last five to push KKR to 200/6—well beyond their initial expectations.
"When Rinku and Venkatesh were batting, it was about getting 50-60 runs in 30 balls. It was all about playing it normal for 15 overs and then taking it on. Initially, we thought 170-180 would be a really good total on this wicket, we got extra (because of the Rinku-Venkatesh partnership)," Rahane added.
With a formidable total on the board, KKR’s bowlers took charge immediately. Vaibhav Arora struck on just the second ball of the innings to remove Travis Head for 4. Harshit Rana then outfoxed Abhishek Sharma with a deceptive slower delivery, leaving SRH in deep trouble at 9/3 within three overs.
Varun Chakravarthy (3/22) dismantled the middle order, while Sunil Narine bowled a miserly spell, celebrating his 200th wicket for KKR. Andre Russell (2/20) finished off the tail, ensuring SRH were bowled out for just 120 in 17 overs.
Though Moeen Ali was included in the XI, he wasn’t needed with either bat or ball. "We had three quality spinners. Moeen, unfortunately, could not bowl tonight, but Sunny and Varun bowled well, credit goes to Vaibhav and Harshit as well," he concluded.
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