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After posting 200 for six on the board, Kolkata Knight Riders bowled out Sunrisers Hyderabad for a paltry 120 to secure two vital points in the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday, April 3 2025.
The crushing 80-run loss was SRH's biggest defeat margin in the IPL. KKR also made it five wins out of five against SRH on the trot, equaling the feat held by Delhi Capitals.
KKR also became the first team with 20-plus wins against three different opponents in the IPL.
KKR's pace attack hit the ground running with Vaibhav Arora leading from the front, nabbing two wickets in his first two overs.
The KKR bowlers choked SRH for runs; and in the batters' bid to make up the run-rate they lost wickets regularly. SRH were reduced to 9 for 3 in the first three overs, losing openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma as well as Ishan Kishan.
Vaibhav and Varun Chakravarthy picked up three wickets each, while Harshit Rana came up with a miserly spell of 1-15 in three overs.
Andre Russell was a bit expensive but he nabbed two wickets while Sunil Narine finished his quota with 1-30.
For SRH, Mohammed Shami, Pat Cummins, Zeeshan Ansari, Harshal Patel, and Kamindu Mendis took a wicket apiece.
Take a look at the best bowling performances in the match....
Vaibhav Arora
Opening the bowling, Vaibhav gave KKR the perfect start, dismissing the dangerous Travis Head off his second ball. Head hit him for a boundary off his ball, but the pacer had his revenge by removing him off the next ball.
A tad fuller delivery which shaped away from outside off, Head attempted a drive but it moved a bit and he ended up slicing it off the toe-end as the ball went over the mid off where Harshit Rana took a tough catch.
Interestingly, in the IPL 2024 final, he had dismissed Head for a first ball duck. Definitely, he knows a thing or two to get rid of the Australian, known to be India's nemesis across formats!
SRH never recovered from that blow as they lost two more wickets in quick succession.
Vaibhav, who was bought back for Rs 1.8 crore (Rs 18 million), by KKR at the IPL auction, maintained consistent line and length, and was extremely accurate.
He returned to pick Ishan Kishan's wicket in his second over. Ishan drove a fuller delivery uppishly to the covers and Rahane took a superb catch. A second consecutive failure for Ishan after scoring an unbeaten 106 off 47 deliveries against the Rajasthan Royals in their season opener.
It was for the second time in 13 balls across four innings that Ishan was dismissed by Vaibhav in the IPL.
His third over was a maiden as Sri Lankan all-rounder Kamindu Mendis, who was making his IPL debut, looked clueless and struggled to deal with the swing and seam movement. It would have been a wicket-maiden had Andre Russell held onto a regulation chance at mid on.
Man-of-the-match Vaibhav bowled as many as nine dot balls in his spell and ended up with excellent figures of 3-29 in four overs.
Varun Chakravarthy
Fresh off a brilliant Champions Trophy campaign, Varun was not at his best in KKR's first two matches in the IPL. He gave away 43 runs while picking up one wicket in the season opener against RCB. Against Mumbai, he conceded just 12 runs while defending a paltry 116, but could not pick a wicket.
Against SRH, the spin maestro fully utilised the spin-friendly conditions at the Eden Gardens, tallying three wickets for just 22 runs.
Introduced into the attack in the sixth over, he further tightened the noose around the SRH batters, giving away just four runs in his first over.
As most of the SRH batsmen played with minimal footwork, Varun exploited it brilliantly.
Heinrich Klaasen hit him for a boundary off an attempted wrong 'un, in his second over, but he came back strongly giving away just seven in that over.
Varun got his first wicket in his third over, accounting for Aniket Verma with a flighted delivery. The batter, trying to slog it down the ground, ended up dragging the ball right to the fielder at deep mid-wicket.
He returned to finish his quota in the 16th over, snapped up two wickets off the first two balls. SRH Skipper Pat Cummins looked to loft a good length delivery, but ended up holing it out to Harshit Rana at longon. He then cleaned up Simarjeet Singh with a googly.
Varun bowled as many as eight dots in his four overs and finished with a dreamy spell of of 3-22.
Harshit Rana
Harshit was expensive in KKR's first two matches, giving away 32 runs in three overs against RCB and 28 runs in two overs against Mumbai.
The Team India pacer staged a strong comeback against SRH, conceding just 15 runs in three overs while picking up his first wicket of IPL 2025.
He hit the deck hard and varied his pace deceptively and never let the SRH batters off the hook.
Sharing the new ball with Vaibhav, Harshit struck with his final ball of the first over, nabbing the hard-hitting Abhishek Sharma with a slower ball. Abhishek threw his hands at it and the ball looped off the edge and flew towards the slips where Venkatesh Iyer took a safe catch.
He conceded just three runs off his first over and five off his second.
Harshit returned to torment the SRH batters in the 13thover and continued to operate with precision.
Although Cummins top-edged one for a four over the 'keeper's head -- the only boundary conceded by Harshit on the night -- he gave away only seven runs in that over.
Retained by KKR for Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million) ahead of the IPL 2025 auction, Harshit did not try anything different as he stuck to his strong points and contributed to the team's success.
Photographs: BCCI
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