The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) strengthened their grip over the eighth position in the IPL 2023 points table with a five-run win against the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). Varun Chakravarthy's fantastic performance at the death helped KKR make a splendid comeback and defend a target of 172 runs.
KKR scored 171/9 in their 20 overs, riding on crucial contributions from Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh. Left-arm pacers Marco Jansen and T Natarajan bagged two wickets each for the Orange Army.
Chasing 172 for a win against the Kolkata Knight Riders, the SunRisers lost four early wickets. Harry Brook, Abhishek Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, and Rahul Tripathi were back in the hut before the seventh over ended.
Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen brought SRH back into the contest with a 70-run fifth-wicket partnership. Shardul Thakur broke the partnership by dismissing Klaasen on 36. Markram tried his best to take SRH over the line, but lost his wicket while attempting a big shot off Vaibhav Arora.
The likes of Marco Jansen, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Mayank Markande failed to chase 27 runs off 19 balls as Hyderabad fell short by five runs.
SunRisers Hyderabad remain 9th in IPL 2023 points table after the loss against Kolkata Knight Riders
SunRisers Hyderabad could have moved up to the eighth position in the IPL 2023 points table with a win over the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, they could not get the job done at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
KKR earned two points from this contest, taking their tally to eight points. Here are the updated standings of IPL 2023:
IPL 2023 returns to Jaipur tomorrow for a rematch of last season's final between the Gujarat Titans and the Rajasthan Royals. GT can inch a step closer to the playoffs if they defeat RR at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
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