Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opening pair Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana gave their team a tremendous start in the third game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
While Rana entertained fans with his explosive inning of 80 runs from 56 deliveries, Shubman Gill, on the other hand didn’t manage a great score, but he surely delighted the fans with a classy lofted shot over the straight boundary.
Shubman Gill drove Natarajan through for a maximum without looking up as he got one near the arc of his bat from the SRH left-arm pacer on the first delivery of the fourth over of KKR’s innings.
From the side-on angle, the beautiful flourish on Shubman Gill’s stoke looked even better as he seemed to have picked the length and line of the ball from Natarajan very early. And instead of trying to belt the ball, focused purely on timing it.
Opening the innings with Nitish Rana, Gill scored 15 off 13 deliveries before falling prey to Rashid Khan’s googly. Rana and Gill stitched a 50-run stand in the powerplay to lay the foundation of a hefty total.
Earlier, after losing the toss, KKR skipper Eoin Morgan said that the franchise hoping to do better than last year where it missed out on play-offs spot.
“We missed out narrowly last year with qualifying so we will try and go one better this time. Our four foreign players are Russell, Shakib, Cummins and myself,” he said.
SRH skipper David Warner, meanwhile, said that they have included Mohammad Nabi as an overseas pick in place of Kane Williamson.
“This wicket will play a little different, it’s a lot drier. There wasn’t much dew in the last training session, and so that won’t make much of a difference. We know what we can chase to be honest, and we prefer doing that. Our foreign players are myself, Rashid Khan, Nabi and Jonny Bairstow,” said the SRH skipper.
