Kolkata Knight Riders’ big win over Sunrisers Hyderabad was a huge deal for captain Ajinkya Rahane. He said, “This match was super important for us, and winning by such a big margin was key.”
The team scored 200 runs after batting first. Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh were game-changers in the last overs. Iyer hit 60 runs in just 29 balls, helping his team reach 200. Sunrisers Hyderabad, known for their explosive batting, fell apart and were all out for 120. Knight Riders won by 80 runs. Rahane praised his bowlers, saying they did a great job.
After the match, Rahane said, “We wanted to bowl first, but we ended up batting. When we lost two wickets, we talked about staying strong. Later, with 11-12 overs left, our lower-order batsmen could score more runs.” He added, “We learned a lot from our mistakes. This game was a great example for our batting group to learn from.”
Rahane explained, “When Rinku and Venkatesh were batting, scoring 50-60 runs in 30 balls was crucial. This happened because we played normally until the 15th over. Initially, we thought 170-180 would be a good score, but Rinku Singh and Venkatesh Iyer’s partnership helped us get extra runs.” He praised his spinners, saying, “We had three quality spinners. Unfortunately, Moeen Ali couldn’t bowl, but Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy did well. We also have to give credit to Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana.”
Vaibhav Arora was named the man of the match. He took three key wickets in four overs, giving up just 29 runs. The Knight Riders bought him at the auction for 1.80 crore rupees. Varun Chakravarthy also took three wickets, giving up 22 runs in four overs.