Free-flowing Brook

Kolkata, April 14

England’s new batting sensation Harry Brook brought a high-flying Kolkata Knight Riders back to ground with a sensational 55-ball 100 as Sunrisers Hyderabad cantered to their second victory by 23 runs in the IPL here today.

The youngster finally managed to crack the IPL code in style, with Hyderabad managing a massive 228/4 in 20 overs on a batting belter. Despite some hammering from home skipper Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh, Hyderabad’s bowlers restricted Kolkata to 205/7 in 20 overs.

Brook, who was roped in after his exploits in Pakistan, finally announced his arrival in style when he smashed four fours and two sixes inside first three overs to give Hyderabad the best start of the season.

Bought by for a whopping Rs 13.25 crore, Brook had managed only 29 in the first three games but found his rhythm with as he smashed 12 fours and three sixes in his knock. This was the first century of this edition.

It was always going to be difficult for Kolkata to maintain a run-rate of 11-plus per over but skipper Rana (75 off 41 balls) did launch into Hyderabad’s bowlers with six sixes and had Rinku (58 not out off 31 balls) for company in their 69-run stand from only 6.2 overs. This was after Kolkata were reduced to 96/5 within first 10 overs.

Once T Natarajan got rid of Rana, it was left to Rinku to pull off yet another heist as 57 were needed off last three overs.

But Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/29) gave 10 in the 18th over as Natarajan (1/54) went for 16 in the penultimate over.

With 32 needed off the last over, Umran Malik (1/36) came back well to dismiss Shardul Thakur with the first delivery and effectively sealing the game.

Brief scores: SRH: 228/4 in 20 overs (Brooks 100*, Markram 50; Russell 3/22) vs KKR: 205/7 in 20 overs (Rana 75, Rinku 58*; Markande 2/27). — PTI

Punjab look to bat away blues vs LSG

Kolkata: Let down by their below-par batting in their twin defeats, Punjab Kings will want their batters to improve their dot ball count when they take on a rampaging Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL here tomorrow. After a flying start with two wins, Punjab endured two back-to-back losses following their failure to post competitive totals. If skipper Shikhar Dhawan carried the team against Sunrisers Hyderabad, his fall on Tuesday against Gujarat Titans meant Punjab could only manage 153/8, mainly because of Shahrukh Khan’s 9-ball 22. The main reason behind Punjab’s underwhelming total was their failure to push the scoring in the middle overs They ended up playing 56 dot balls, an area which they need to address urgently.