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After a thundering start to the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League in Chennai, the action moved to Punjab and Kolkata on Day 2 of the tournament. After witnessing a high-voltage drama in Mullanpur, the action shifted to the Eden Gardens, where Kolkata Knight Riders hosted SunRisers Hyderabad in their respective season openers. The match saw Shreyas Iyer returning to the tournament after missing a season and Pat Cummins coming back after a few seasons, as the captain of the SunRisers Hyderabad. Luck favoured Cummins as he won his first toss as the captain and invited the rivals to bat first.
Philip Salt and Sunil Narine opened KKR’s innings. While the latter returned to the hut after playing four deliveries, Salt played a brilliant knock and recorded the second half-century of the tournament. While Salt remained stable at one end of the strike, others couldn’t manage to find stability. However, later down the order, Andre Russell unleashed his inner beast and played a remarkable knock of 64* runs off just 25 deliveries, combined with three boundaries and seven maximums. Owing to his knock, the score went past 200-mark for the first time in the season.
In the first innings, T Natarajan picked the maximum number of wickets, followed by Mayank Markande.
Hyderabad who were smashed brutally in the first innings, tried to make a comeback with bat. However, just when Mayank Agarwal gained stability, a lethal bouncer from Harshit Rana forced Agarwal to return to the hut with 32 runs in the account. SRH found it difficult to sail through the game, until their wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klassen took the team's steering into his hands.
Klassen played a remarkable knock of 63 runs off 29 balls to narrow down the gap between the target. While the SRH were about to clinch their first victory of the season, Harshit Rana's last-over heroics turned around the fortunes. Kolkata kicked off their IPL 2024 season with a brilliant four-run win over Pat Cummins' Hyderabad.
