Resurgent Hyderabad continued with their winning march in the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 by recording a crushing 7-wicket victory over Kolkata in the Match No 25 played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Friday night.
Middle-order batsmen Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram slammed half-centuries to help Hyderabad score 176/3 in 17.5 overs, thus winning their 3rd match from 5 outings so far in the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022, which propelled them to the 7th spot in the points table.
Hyderabad are now placed above three teams — Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai — as they now have 6 points and a Net Run Rate of -0.196, which they are yet to improve.
And given their current form and overall performances that Hyderabad have put in the last three games, it should not be a difficult task since they have collective performances coming through.
On Friday, the raw pace of Umran Malik, who bagged a couple of wickets, was as intimidating as the counter-attacking knocks from Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram, and aided by a 3-for from T Natarajan, Hyderabad were able to dish out a complete performance.
After inviting Kolkata to bat first, Hyderabad made their intentions clear when their left-arm lanky South African bowler Marco Jansen had the Australian captain Aaron Finch caught behind for 7.
In the fifth over, T Natarajan got a delivery going through the defense of Venkatesh Iyer for 6 and two balls later, he had Sunil Narine caught by all-rounder Shashank Singh to leave the opponent reeling at 31/3 in 4.3 overs.
The matters became worse for Kolkata when Umran Malik sent down a scorching yorker at 148.8kmph in the 10th over to dismiss Kolkata captain Shreyas Iyer, who at the toss had expressed happiness that his side was getting to bat first. Shreyas Iyer struck 3 fours to make 28 form 25 balls.
But, from 70/4, Kolkata went on to post a formidable 175/8 thanks to Nitish Rana’s first half-century of the season and Andre Russell’s 49 not out, with the burly West Indian failing to bring up his fifty on the final ball of the innings.
Nitish Rana faced 36 balls and hit 6 fours and 2 sixes to make a fine 54, whereas Andre Russell played a typical aggressive knock of 49 not out from just 25 balls, smacking 4 sixes and as many fours in the process.
For Hyderabad, the left-arm seamer T Natarajan returned with 4-0-37-3 whereas Umran Malik took 4-0-27-2. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen and Jagadeesha Suchith claimed 1 wicket each.
Hyderabad did not make an ideal start as Pat Cummins had Abhishek Sharma chopping one on to his wickets for 3 and Andre Russell had Kane WIlliamson playing one on after scoring a 16-ball 17 with 3 fours.
Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram got together at this stage in the game and Hyderabad faced a true test of character — if they were to win, there had to be new match-winners and the team would be glad they did find a new pair.
From a precarious 39/2 in 5.2 overs, Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram took Hyderabad to a solid 133 when the third wicket fell. Their 94-run stand for the third wicket required only 54 balls, and in the process both the batsmen produced their best shows so far in this competition.
The right-handed Rahul Tripathi played his strokes all around the ground to make 71 from 37 balls with 6 fours and 4 boundaries, with some of his lofted strokes in the cover region off Varun Chakravarthy were simply mesmerising.
On the other hand, Aiden Markram continued making runs with ease against Kolkata bowlers, hitting 6 fours and 4 sixes to remain unbeaten on 68, which came from only 36 balls.
The South African batsman added 43 runs unbeaten for the fourth wicket with Nicholas Pooran (5*) as Hyderabad finished their chase with 7 wickets to spare and 13 balls remaining.
Hyderabad will have a day’s break before they take the field again on Sunday against a wobbly Punjab side, whereas Kolkata have their next contest against Rajasthan on Monday, April 18.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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