Rana, Russell lift KKR to 175/8

Mumbai, April 15 : Nitish Rana’s fifty and Andre Russell’s quick-fire unbeaten 49 off 25 lifted Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 175/8 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in an IPL match here at the Brabourne Stadium on Friday. KKR suffered early blows, losing three wickets in the Powerplay after being put into bat. Marco Jansen (1/26), Umran Malik (2/27) and T Natarajan (3/37) caused a lot of troubles for KKR batters. Aaron Finch’s debut innings for KKR short-lived as Jansen removed the Australian for seven. Venkatesh Iyer’s (6) lack of footwork fetched Natarajan his first wicket of the day. In no time the left-arm pacer picked another as S l Narine (6) gave a straight catch at point region. Rana (54) joined his skipper Shreyas Iyer (28) when KKR were struggling at 31/3 in 4.3 overs. The duo slowly got into the rebuilding act. Umran broke the 39-run partnership as his perfect yorker crashed the stumps of Shreyas. Russell then provided the much-needed support to Rana. The duo took the aggressive route, with Russell hammering SRH bowlers. Soon after his fifty, Rana was caught behind off the bowling of Natarajan. Rana’s 36-ball innings saw two maximums and six boundaries. Towards the end, Russell slapped four sixes and as many fours to take KKR to a competitive total.

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