On Markram and Tripathi, KKR trip as Sunrisers cruise to victory

From 39/2, the duo stitches 94-run partnership to help SRH win by 7 wickets with 13 balls to spare

MUMBAI: Sunrisers Hyderabad got off to a cautious start, as they often do, in chase of 176 but it was Rahul Tripathi’s turn to win the day against his former franchise as they recorded a comfortable seven-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Brabourne stadium on Friday.

Tripathi arrived at the fall of Kane Williamson’s wicket in the sixth over with 39 on the board. A busy No.3, the diminutive striker has been in good hitting form and he used his entire range of strokes, including chancing his arm over the inner ring.

He first took on Andre Russell’s short-ball tactics. He also capitalised against Aman Khan’s medium pace and then played the biggest disrupter to KKR’s plans, dismantling their mystery spinners.

Varun Chakravarthy had spoken of a mysterious leg-break in the making but with dew settling in over the Brabourne outfield, it was not his day. Following three successive strikes by Tripathi over the extra-cover region, the eight over bowled by Chakravarthy went for 18. At the other end, Aiden Markram got in the act against Sunil Naraine and in that spell of play, between overs 8-11, TripathiMarkram reduced the target by 46 runs.

By the time Tripathi was done, holing out to Venkatesh Iyer at long-on off Russell in the 15th over, he had done enough damage with his 37-ball 71 ( 4x4, 6x6). Markram took them home with an unbeaten 36-ball 68.

With the bat, KKR had come out firing to rediscover their lost powerplay intent by handing Aaron Finch his ninth franchise debut; the Australian replacing Ajinkya Rahane. But the batters could not deliver. The Australia white-ball captain lasted five balls.

It wasn’t his nemesis Bhuvneshwar Kumar but Marco Jansen, coming left-arm-over that got him caught behind. While

KKR continued to do whatever in their power in search of a bright start, T Natarajan successfully thwarted their efforts, first sending Venkatesh Iyer (6) back, then Sunil Naraine (6).

With KKR three wickets down, the match and the assembled crowd came to life when Umran Malik came on to bowl in the 10th over. Malik, his high speed and search for consistency has been the overriding theme of this IPL. It changed on

Friday when his average speed came down by a few clicks but in doing that he found the right lengths on a responsive Brabourne surface. It all came together in final ball of his first over, when he spotted KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer’s restless footwork and disturbed his timber with a sharp yorker when the batter was on 28.

In Malik’s next over, Sheldon Jackson found the pace too hot to handle and top-edged a pull.

Malik came back to complete his spell (2-27) with a box-office face off against Russell in the 16th over where the beefy power-hitter played and missed, as the express bowler ramped up his speed and peppered the batter with short balls.

But on days when Russell decides to use his power judiciously, he can still make the difference.

The West Indian kept waiting for the poor ball, the weaker bowlers. He smashed J Suchith for 17 in the 20th over and found four sixes and four boundaries in the closing overs during his unbeaten 25-ball 49. That it wasn’t enough is another story. Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 175/8 in 20 overs (N Rana 54, A Russell 49*; T Natarajan 3/37, Umran Malik 2/27) lost to

176/3 in 17.5 overs (R Tripathi 71, A Markram 68*; A Russell 2/20) by 7 wickets.

BCCI Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Rahul Tripathi scored 71 off just 37 balls against KKR at Brabourne stadium in Mumbai on Friday.