SRH vs KKR: Nitish Rana hits 12th IPL fifty off against Sunrisers Hyderabad

Nitish Rana went blazing guns in Kolkata Knight Rider’s opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday, April 11. The KKR batsman opened for his team with Shubman Gill and gave a brilliant start to the Kolkata-based franchise.

Shubman Gill, bowled by a Rashid Khan googly, departed for 15 off 13 with KKR on 53/1 after 7 overs. But Rana, who was on 38 off 29 then, kept his wonderful knock going by sending the ball all around the park and bringing up his 12th IPL fifty off just 37 balls to give KKR the perfect push in their IPL 2021



opener.

His quickfire partnership of 93 runs off just 50 balls with Rahul Tripathi (53 off 29) took KKR to 146/2 after just 15.2 overs. Rana almost came close to a KKR record of being the first centurion for the Kolkata-based team since Brendon McCullum’s 158 not out against RCB in the 2008 IPL opener.

However, Rana departed after scoring a brilliant 80 off 56 on Sunday after Mohammad Nabi’s length delivery tricked him into sending an easy catch to long-off. However, he left behind a great total for KKR to capitalise on the Chennai wicket.