IPL 2024: Dre Russ and Klaasen's blazing knocks, Harshit's heroic final over and other top moments from KKR-SRH thriller

The 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed it’s first nail-biter in the second match of the Saturday double-header with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 4 runs in Kolkata.

It was a fixture that was widely marketed around the potential showdown between Australian pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, two of the most expensive players in the history of the cash-rich league who were sold to KKR and SRH for Rs 24.75 crore and Rs 20.5 crore respectively.

Cummins, on top of that, was appointed captain of the ‘Orange Army’ after his successful run at the international level that saw him lead Australia to victory in the ICC World Test Championship as well as in the World Cup last year. South Africa’s Aiden Markram ended up losing the job after just one season in charge despite leading the same franchise to back-to-back titles in SA20.

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Kolkata too had a different leader this season compared to last year, with Shreyas Iyer returning to the side after missing the entirety of the 2023 season due to a back injury. He took over from Nitish Rana, who had filled in for him last year, and was hoping to put the the negativity and drama surrounding his central contract as well as his fitness aside and focus on reviving KKR’s fortunes this season.

In the end, Iyer did make a winning comeback as KKR captain in what was a roller-coaster of a fixture at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. And it was mainly due to the efforts of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Phil Salt as well as a heroic final over from Harshit Rana that helped the two-time champions stave off a spirited fightback from the Sunrisers to join Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings among teams to have opened their account so far this season.

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Here are five key moments from the third match of the season:

Salt makes an instant impact

Phil Salt went unsold at the player auction in December much to everyone’s surprise despite putting in some solid performances for the Delhi Capitals last year. He eventually did get a gig in this year’s IPL, signing with KKR as a replacement for fellow Englishman Jason Roy. And ahead of their opening game against SRH, he faced direct competition from Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz for the wicketkeeper-opener’s role, for which the latter had been preferred last season.

Salt would end up grabbing the opportunity with both hands after being preferred over Gurbaz, smashing 54 off 40 balls to set the tone for the Knight Riders, smashing three fours and as many sixes along the way.

Russell smashes Gayle’s record

Salt half-century was something of a one-man effort in the first half of the KKR innings as the next four in the Kolkata top five were all dismissed for single-digit scores, with skipper Iyer departing for a two-ball duck in his first IPL appearance in two years. The Knight Riders found themselves in a spot of bother at 119/6 with Salt getting dismissed off leg-spinner Mayank Markande’s bowling, and would’ve found it difficult crossing 160 had it not been for Andre Russell lighting up the Eden Gardens as he has for a decade now.

Russell joined Rinku Singh at the centre following Salt’s dismissal, and made an instant impact by smashing Markande, the bowler responsible for the Englishman’s dismissal, for three sixes in a space of five deliveries. Russell would add another four maximums to his tally as he tore the Sunrisers attack to pieces in the second half of Kolkata’ innings, blazing his way to a 20-ball half-century and eventually finishing unbeaten on 64 off 25 balls as KKR posted a formidable 208/7 after being invited to bat.

Along the way, he surpassed fellow Jamaican and legendary batter Chris Gayle to become the fastest batter to 200 sixes in the IPL in terms of deliveries faced.

Narine remains dependable as ever

Besides being a prime spin option for the Knight Riders for more than a decade now, West Indies’ Sunil Narine has also been something of a floater in the batting order, where he’s appeared in the middle order and even opened on the odd occasion, as was the case on Saturday.

The experiment to have him open alongside Salt didn’t really work out as he was run out for 2 following a mix-up with the Englishman. However, Narine dependable as ever with the ball as he helped choke the flow of runs for the Sunrisers in the middle overs during their chase of the stiff 209-run target, finishing with stellar figures of 1/19 from four in a match in which both teams ended up scoring more than 200.

Klaasen nearly pulls off a heist for Sunrisers

It wasn’t just ‘Dre Russ’ who was tonking bowlers all over the Eden Gardens for fun and blazed his way to a half-century in the blink of an eye with a flurry of sixes. SRH’s Heinrich Klaasen is arguably just as clean a hitter of the ball as Russell is and was in red-hot form on Saturday, smashing his way to a 25-ball half-century to bring the Sunrisers back into the contest after they appeared dead and buried at 133/4 after 16 overs.

The South African was particularly ruthless against Varun Chakravarthy, smashing a couple of sixes in each of the mystery spinner’s last two overs before collecting three of them in a space of four deliveries in Mitchell Starc’s final over. In a sudden turn of events, SRH found themselves in the driving seat after collecting 63 runs in overs 17, 18 and 19 — including 26 off Starc, the man who had been acquired for Rs 24.75 crore.

Klaasen would then pull Harshit Rana effortless over deep backward square leg for a maximum at the start of the final over to bring the equation down to seven off five deliveries. It was perhaps his decision to collect a single in the following delivery, however, that may have ultimately cost SRH the match.

As for milestones, Klaasen too brought up one of his own — joining the 4,000-run club in T20s.

Harshit’s final over heroics

Shahbaz Ahmed was on strike after Klaasen decided to collect a single in the second ball of the final over and he was fairly well set himself on 16 off just four deliveries, having collected a six each off Starc and Chakravarthy along with a four off Russell. The pressure was entirely on young Harshit with the equation now reading six runs off four deliveries with two set batters at the crease, one of them breathing fire.

And yet it was Kolkata that managed to walk away with a four-run victory after a dramatic turn of events, with Harshit showing remarkable composure despite facing immense pressure, the kind of pressure that gets the better of the best in the business. Shahbaz would end up holing out to Iyer at long on while going for the glory shot, and Klaasen would get the marching orders two balls later after getting a thick leading edge towards third man, where Suyash Sharma ended up grabbing a screamer running backwards in what could be the ‘Catch of the Tournament’ so far.

SRH skipper Pat Cummins is no mug with the bat and could’ve levelled the scores to take the match to a Super Over, or finished off in style with a six for that matter; instead he would fail to make contact with the ball in the only delivery that he faced all evening, leading to massive celebrations among the Knight Riders on the field as well as among the fans in the stands.