IPL 2019: Andre Russell's blitz decimates SRH

It was a sensational second game of the IPL between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

This match was built up as the much-anticipated return of David Warner, who delivered on the big stage once again after being banned for one year, with a swashbuckling 85 off 43 balls. Warner crunched 9 fours and 3 sixes on his return and it looked like he never left as he was in touch and was timing the ball to perfection.

Warner was supported by Bairstow who dropped anchor, as the pair put on a brilliant 118 run opening standing. Things slowed down though as KKR picked up wickets near the end of the innings but a nice cameo from Vijay Shankar lifted SRH to 181-3 at the end of the twenty overs.

KKR lost the early wicket of Lynn in the second innings but Nitish Rana steadied the ship as he rotated the strike with Uthappa at the other end and put away the bad balls to the boundary. Nitish Rana set the platform with a fluid 68 of 47 balls but SRH chipped away at the wickets and did not let things get out of control.

With 53 runs needed off 18 balls, SRH were in the driver's seat, but that is when Superman Andre Russell walked in and played a blinder of an innings. Russell took the SRH bowlers to the cleaners with some ferocious power hitting as he smashed the ball all over the park.

Even Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hyderabad's best death bowled, was torn apart by Russell, and it was just the magic Kolkata needed to get over the line. Russell was well supported by the young Shubman Gill who finished off the game with two sixes in the last over off Shakib to hand KKR a scintillating win in their first game of the season.

SRH is famous for defending totals, so they will be thoroughly disappointed to let this game slip. Bhuvi showed a bit of inexperience as captain but its a learning curve for him, and when Kane Williamson comes back the team will be better off during tense situations. Yusuf Pathan and Shakib were particularly poor but this team has a strong bench strength and we might get to see Mohammed Nabi and Deepak Hooda come in for the next match.

KKR will be thrilled to bits with this win. They did well to restrict SRH to under 200 and then when the game was running away from them, Russell pulled a rabbit out of the hat. It's still early days in the tournament and both these teams are strong on paper, it will be interesting to see how they perform in the next few matches respectively. The star of the match has to be Andre Russell for his blistering knock and his two wickets with the ball, and a quick mention to Dinesh Karthik who handled his bowlers well under pressure.

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