Nitish Rana becomes fourth player to complete 2000 runs for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL

The 47th game of the Indian Premier League (2023) featured a clash between the Aiden Markram-led Sunrisers Hyderabad and the two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday, May 4.

Coming in to bat first after winning the toss, Kolkata got off to a subpar start to the game. However, skipper Nitish Rana came in to stabilise the innings. The 29-year-old scored 42 runs in 31 deliveries, which also saw him complete 2000 runs in the IPL.

The skipper became the fourth player to achieve the feat for the two-time champions. Through his knock, he now sits in fourth place on the list of players with the most runs for Kolkata with 2019 runs in 80 innings. Furthermore, Andre Russell, Robin Uthappa, and Gautam Gambhir also feature on the list with 2143, 2439, and 3035 runs to their names, respectively.

Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh’s knocks propel KKR to respectable total

Electing to bat first, Kolkata looked to notch up a big total in the first innings. However, the side got off to the worst of starts as Rahmanullah Gurbaz was dismissed on a duck. Furthermore, Jason Roy failed to make an impact, as he was sent back to the pavilion after 20 runs.

To make matters worse, Venkatesh Iyer was dismissed quite early on as well. However, it was the knocks by Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh that stabilised the innings for Kolkata. Rana amassed 42 runs, whereas Rinku played a stellar knock of 46 runs in 35 deliveries, and through Andre Russell’s short cameo, Kolkata managed to post 171 runs on the board for Hyderabad to chase.

On the other hand, Hyderabad put in a decent performance with the ball. Marco Jansen and T Natarajan took two wickets each, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kartik Tyagi, Aiden Markram, and Mayank Markande taking one wicket each; as the run chase commences, Kolkata would be keen on limiting Hyderabad to a low total and registering their fourth win of the IPL 2023.