Two out of the three groups reeling on the backside of Indian Premier League 2023 factors desk, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders registered a closely-fought contest on the Rajiv Gandhi Worldwide Stadium tonight.
A nail-biting 5-run victory for Knight Riders got here on the again of them efficiently defending a 172-run goal. Not the simplest of victories by any means, the match went all the way down to the wire with Hyderabad pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/33 & 5*) needing to hit a last-ball six for a win. Dealing with spinner Varun Chakravarthy (1/20), the right-handed batter missed a brief ball which may’ve been hit for a most.
Needing 10 runs to win off eight balls with Abdul Samad (21) within the center, the match was in SRH’s favour however their final specialist batter lacking out on a free-hit within the penultimate over earlier than a last-over dismissal harm them probably the most.
Actually, captain Aiden Markram (41) scoring at a strike fee of 102.50 all through his 40-ball innings nullified the influence created by wicket-keeper batter Heinrich Klaasen (36) within the center overs.
Whereas Chakravarthy bagged his second Participant of the Match of the season, pacers Shardul Thakur (2/23) and Vaibhav Arora (2/32) additionally contributed in a victory on Thursday.
Can SRH Qualify for Playoffs in 2023 IPL?
Sunrisers, who had began this match because the ninth-ranked crew with three wins and 5 losses in entrance of their identify, have now misplaced their sixth match of the season to additional weaken their ninth place.
Contemplating how they nonetheless have 5 extra matches to play, it could be unfair to rule them out of playoffs qualification as this cut-off date. Though dropping six out of 9 league matches at this stage of the match isn’t one of the best of indicators for any crew, SRH can nonetheless flip issues round assuming they keep away from losses within the matches slated to be performed later this month.
Knight Riders, who have been on the hosts’ place earlier than this match, have received 4 and misplaced six out of their first 10 matches to dwell for one more day with out relying on every other crew so far as playoffs are involved.
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