Gavaskar hails Harshit Rana top class over in KKR thrilling win

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Kolkata. Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has praised Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) fast bowler Harshit Rana for bowling a brilliant final over in their thrilling win against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2024 match on Saturday.

Rana was handed the ball to bowl the last over when Sunrisers needed 13 runs to win and Heinrich Klaasen hit a powerful six on the very first ball. A single followed, but Shahbaz Ahmed was out to long on on the next ball.

Marco Jansen managed just one run on his first ball, but the match changed again as Rana had Klaasen (63 off 29 balls) caught by Suyyash Sharma at short third man on a slower ball.

When five runs were needed off the last ball, Harshit Rana once again bowled a clever slower ball outside the off and captain Pat Cummins swung and missed and KKR won the thrilling match by 4 runs.

Gavaskar said on Star Sports ‘Cricket Live’ – Excellent. He learned it completely from the first ball he bowled; It was a faster ball and Klaasen sent it down for six runs. In the next five balls he reduced the pace, bowled slower cutters, slower off-cutters which really meant a lot. There was no pace coming from the surface for the batsmen to play big shots.

Such a brilliant over, absolutely top class over from Harshit Rana. I think they gave man of the match to Russell for his 2 wickets and 64 runs, but they should also give something to Harshit Rana for his spell and especially that last over.

Meanwhile, former West Indies cricketer Brian Lara spoke on Mitchell Starc’s debut for KKR. The Kolkata-based franchise spent a whopping Rs 24.70 crore in the mini-auction held last December, establishing the Australian fast bowler as the most expensive player in IPL history after a fierce bidding war with Gujarat Titans.

Lara said that I think the strength of Mitchell Starc, which we all know around the world, is his ability to use the new ball to take wickets. He did not get any wicket with the new ball. And when you play him at the back end, that’s not his forte, his forte is up front. But it’s only the first match, so it’s okay.

–IANS

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