On this day, April 3, 2025: Venkatesh Iyer blitzes as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 80 runs. It was the clash of the IPL 2024 finalists as Kolkata Knight Riders were up against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 15th match of the IPL 2025. Kolkata Knight Riders were batting first and lost both their openers cheaply as Cummins and Shami delivered an excellent new ball spell which put Sunrisers Hyderabad on top.
KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane along with Angkrish Raghuvanshi put up a partnership to consolidate things for Kolkata Knight Riders. Raghuvanshi smashed a half century before getting dismissed while Rahane scored 38 runs off 27 balls. Venkatesh Iyer came in and took on the bowlers straight away. He was brought by KKR for a huge price tag at the auction and Venkatesh made justice to it as he smashed a half century to put Kolkata Knight Riders on top.
Rinku Singh provided the finishing touches with an unbeaten 32 off 17 balls while Venkatesh Iyer was finally dismissed for 60 runs off 29 balls. His knock included seven fours and three sixes and helped Kolkata Knight Riders put up a total of 200/6 at the end of the first innings. It was an excellent effort from the home side and a good total on that surface. With the batting lineup of Sunrisers Hyderabad being so strong the match was evenly poised.
Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana started things very well with the new ball as they picked up the first three SRH wickets with just nine runs on the board. Nitish Reddy, Kamindu Mendis and Aniket Verma all could not convert their starts as SRH were reeling at 75/6. Heinrich Klassen played a cameo but it was too little and Sunrisers Hyderabad were bowled out for 120. KKR picked up a massive 80 run win and the clash of the former finalists was heavily one sided in favour of KKR and a lot of credit would go to Venkatesh Iyer.
