Varun Chakravarthy’s sustained revival with the ball and Sunil Narine’s landmark strike powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a commanding seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, halting SRH’s five-match surge in the Indian Premier League here on Sunday.
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Chakravarthy (3/36) and Narine (2/31) combined to restrict SRH to 165 in 19 overs, after which KKR overhauled the total with 10 balls remaining to register their third consecutive victory of the season.
For leg-spinner Chakravarthy, it was a fourth straight game with a minimum of two wickets, while seasoned off-spinner Narine entered an exclusive IPL club by reaching the 200-wicket milestone.
Turning out in his 197th IPL appearance and taking
the new ball for KKR, Narine joined pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (215 from 199 matches) and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (228 from 182 matches) as the only bowlers to have claimed 200 or more wickets in the league.
In pursuit of a modest target, KKR lost Impact Sub Finn Allen in the fourth over for a blistering 39 off 13 balls with the total on 49, but skipper Ajinkya Rahane (43 off 36 balls) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (59 off 47 balls) steadied the chase through a second-wicket partnership worth 84 runs across 11 overs.
Rahane, who had managed just one fifty in his previous eighth outings as opener, struck four fours and a six, while Raghuvanshi’s composed knock featured five boundaries and two sixes.
Rinku Singh finished the job, hitting the winning boundary to stay unbeaten on 22 off 11 deliveries.
Earlier, after choosing to bat, SRH began in their familiar aggressive fashion, storming to 77 for 1 at the end of the powerplay and 107 for 2 after 10 overs, driven by Travis Head’s (61 off 28 balls) second successive half century.
Their innings then imploded, as they surrendered nine wickets in the final 10 overs while adding only 60 runs.
This was the first time SRH were bowled out in the IPL 2026.
Kartik Tyagi provided solid support with figures of 2/30.
Head’s sparkling knock contained nine fours and three sixes, and he found a reliable ally in Ishan Kishan (42 off 29 balls). It was also the third straight match in which SRH crossed 100 inside the first 10 overs.
The left-handed Australian opener put on 44 runs in just 3.4 overs with Abhishek Sharma (15 off 10 balls) for the first wicket and then added 61 more with Kishan for the second wicket.
Head was ruthless in the second over from Vaibhav Arora, hammering four boundaries, and he did not spare Narine either, striking a six and a four in the third over. He then targeted Australian team-mate Cameron Green, creaming three fours in the fifth over.
However, once Head fell to Chakravarthy off the final ball of the ninth over, SRH’s innings began to unravel.
Danger man Heinrich Klaasen (11) departed after a brilliant piece of fielding from Rovman Powell off Green’s bowling. Stationed at deep midwicket, the West Indian sprinted to his right and launched himself to grab the ball one-handed with his right hand.
He landed heavily and hit his head on the turf in the process. This turned out to be Klaasen’s lowest score of the season.
Chakravarthy then removed Ravichandran Smaran and Aniket Verma in consecutive overs, and Narine capped the bowling effort by dismissing a well-set Kishan in the 16th over for his 200th wicket.
(With PTI Inputs)
