Hyderabad: A resurgent Varun Chakravarthy and milestone man Sunil Narine were instrumental in Kolkata Knight Riders’ comprehensive seven-wicket victory that snapped Sunriser Hyderabad’s five-match winning streak in the Indian Premier League, here on Sunday.
After Chakravarthy (3/36) and Narine (2/31) played major roles in bowling out SRH for 165 in 19 overs, KKR chased down the target with 10 balls to spare to notch their third win on the trot.
This was leg-spinner Chakravarthy’s fourth successive match in which he took at least two wickets while veteran off-spinner Narine joined an exclusive three-member 200-wicket club in the IPL.
Playing his 197th match, Narine, who also opened KKR’s bowling, joined pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (215 from 199 matches) and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (228 from 182 matches) in the elite group.
Chasing a small target, KKR lost Impact Sub Finn Allen in the fourth over for a quick-fire 39 off 13 balls when the team score was 49 but captain Ajinkya Rahane (43 off 36 balls) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (59 off 47 balls) held the innings together with a second wicket stand of 84 runs from 11 overs.
Rahane, who scored just one half century in previous eighth matches at the top of the order, hit four boundaries and a six, while Raghuvanshi struck five boundaries and two sixes.
Rinku Singh struck the winning runs — a four — as he remained not out on 22 off 11 balls.
Earlier, opting to bat, SRH were in their usual menacing batting form, reaching 77 for 1 after powerplay and 107 for 2 at the halfway mark, courtesy Travis Head’s (61 off 28 balls) second consecutive half century.
But they collapsed spectacularly in the second half of their innings, losing nine wickets in 10 overs for the addition of 60 runs.
This was the first time SRH were bowled out in the IPL 2026.
Kartik Tyagi chipped in with 2/30.
Head’s innings was laced with nine fours and three sixes, and he was well supported by Ishan Kishan (42 off 29 balls). This was the third successive match SRH had scored more than 100 runs inside first 10 overs.
The explosive Australian batter stitched 44 runs in just 3.4 overs with Abhishek Sharma (15 off 10 balls) for the opening wicket and then had an alliance of 61 runs with Kishan for the second wicket.
Head was at his destructive best in the second over bowled by Vaibhav Arora, hitting four boundaries. Head did not let Narine off also, hitting a six and four in the third over. He also punished his Australian team-mate Cameron Green with three fours in the fifth over of the innings.
But once Head was out in the final ball of the ninth over, off the bowling of Chakravarthy, SRH’s batting fell apart.
Dangerous Heinrich Klaasen (11) was dismissed, courtesy a spectacular fielding effort from Rovman Powell off the bowling of Green. The West Indian moved to his right at deep midwicket and then leapt to pluck the ball out of thin air with his right hand.
In the process, he struck his head on the ground. This was Klaasen’s lowest score of the season.
Chakravarthy got rid of Ravichandran Smaran and Aniket Verma in his back-to-back overs before Narine removed well-set Kishan in the 16th over for his 200th wicket.
