Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs
Chennai, Apr 11: Opener Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) hit fluent half-centuries to script Kolkata Knight Riders' a comfortable 10-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match, here on Sunday.
SRH's Rashid Khan (2/24) was yet again at his best, asking tough questions to the KKR batsmen but most of his bowling colleagues proved ineffective on a slow yet decent batting wicket.
Hyderabad lost skipper David Warner (3) and Wriddhiman Saha (7) early and were always playing a catch-up game despite Jonny Bairstow's fighting half-century. They could manage 177 for five in the end.
Warner was dropped on nought by Pat Cummins in the first over bowled by Harbhajan Singh but he could not make good use of the life and became a victim of pacer Prasidh Krishna while Saha was cleaned up by Shakib Al Hasan.
Jonny Bairstow (55) and Manish Pandey (61 not out) formed a partnership at a steady run rate. Australian pacer Cummins broke their 92-run stand when he had Bairstow caught at backward point by Rana.
SRH needed 70 off the last five overs.
Mohammed Nabi (14) was hit on his neck by Krishna but the Afghan responded with a cracking six. He went after a slower one but only to be caught by Eoin Morgan.
The 19-year-old Abdul Samad, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, creamed off two sixes and a four off Cummins in the penultimate over to keep SRH in hunt. Requiring 22 runs from the last over, KKR's Andre Russell held his nerves to deny SRH a win.
Earlier, left-handed opener Rana struck the ball hard and clean to provide his side a confident start after they were asked to take first strike.
His strokes on the off-side -- the drives and cuts - were of highest quality and a treat to the eye.
Neither Bhuvneshwar Kumar nor T Natarajan could stop Rana from hitting boundaries even as Subhman Gill was quiet initially. Sandeep Sharma was hit for three boundaries in a row by him.
Gill opened up his arms to hit a massive straight six off Natarajan to make it even better for KKR.
However, the run-flow was affected when ever-reliable Rashid got the ball in his hands. He also provided the breakthrough when he deceived Gill with a wrong'un to find the stumps.
Rana though kept going strong, completing his half-century with a six off Vijay Shankar after surviving an LBW appeal off Rashid. He got the decision overturned, taking the DRS call.
Rana's six-hitting continued after getting his fifty as he punished Natarajan and Sandeep again.
His colleague at the other end Rahul Tripathi also stroked confidently and fluently. He smashed a massive six off Bhuvneshwar and then followed it up with a cheeky four in the third-man region.
He completed his fifty with another boundary off Bhuvneshwar but was dismissed by Natarajan soon after when he top-edged a ball.
Rashid too sent back dangerous Andre Russell (5) back.
Mohammed Nabi (2/32) got rid of Rana and Eoin Morgan (2) off successive balls in the 18th over.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
