'This is your moment buddy' - Shreyas Iyer's message to Harshit Rana ahead of last over in KKR-SRH tie

A new star was born for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday, March 23 in their clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Eden Gardens as Harshit Rana defended 13 runs in the last over to help his team win a pulsating clash by just four runs.

Chasing a stiff 209, SRH gave a great account of themselves as Heinrich Klaasen starred with a 29-ball 63. The most expensive player in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Mitchell Starc, conceded 26 runs off the penultimate over as Klaasen and Shahbaz Ahmed combined to hit four sixes. Rana, just 22 years old, conceded a six off the first ball of the 20th over as the equation was reduced to a very gettable seven required off five balls. However, the right-arm pacer held his nerves and dismissed Klaasen and Shahbaz in the space of three balls before beating Pat Cummins on the last delivery to earn KKR their first two points this season.

After the match, a relieved KKR captain Shreyas Iyer said that he had the belief in Harshit and gave him all the support he could as he came up to bowl the all-important final over.

"Right from the 17th over I had butterflies in my stomach. And to be honest, in the last over I thought anything can happen, They needed 13 runs and we probably didn't have the most experienced bowler bowling at that particular time. But I had that belief in him. I knew that something would happen," Shreyas said after the game.

"This is the time where he could become a hero. That's what I told him. 'Back yourself. No matter what happens in this position, we're going to back you'. To be honest, he was a bit nervous when he was coming to bowl. I looked into his eyes and I told him 'this is your moment, buddy. You need to make the best use of it and don't think much about it. 'Even if we lose, it's fine. You just back yourself and you see to it that you execute whatever I say and what messages we got from inside'. It was a big cluster (of players) in between, but I tried to calm him down as much as possible and then the rest is history," he added.

Shreyas also praised KKR's senior statesmen, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, for their performances. Russell scored a brilliant unbeaten 64 off 25, hitting three fours and seven sixes to help the Knights recover from a precarious 119/6 in the 14th over. With the ball, he took the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Abdul Samad.

Narine opened the batting but couldn't make a mark. However, he impressed with the ball, conceding just 19 runs and picking up Rahul Tripathi's wicket in an exceptional four-over spell on a night where no other bowler managed to bowl at an economy rate below eight an over.

"They have such experience behind their back. Andre Russell, the way he started I'm elated to see the way he performed today with the bat and the ball getting those two crucial wickets out there and running around on the field. And Sunny (Sunil Narine) he has been tremendous with the ball over the years and executing the way he always executes. It was fantastic to see these two perform at their best and it's like a luxury to have them in the team," Shreyas noted.

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I don't think we underestimated him but the shots he played were fantastic and put the pressure back on us: SRH head coach Daniel Vettori

SRH head coach Daniel Vettori heaped praise on Ramandeep Singh, who scored a quickfire 17-ball 35 when KKR were reeling at 51/4 in the eighth over. The former New Zealand spinner explained that Ramandeep's knock helped Phil Salt, who scored a crucial 40-ball 54, to play without the pressure of scoring too quickly.

"It was a great innings. I don't think we underestimated him but the shots he played were fantastic and put the pressure back on us. When you look at good T20 players, irrespective of the situation they are able to put pressure straight back on the bowling team and that's what he was able to do. Allowed Salt at the other end to play his game and there was no pressure on him to take too many risks," Vettori said.

Sunrisers went with two overseas batters - Aiden Markram and Klaasen and two overseas bowlers - Marco Jansen and Cummins in their playing XI. They benched a couple of quality foreigners like Travis Head and Glenn Phillips for the clash. Vettori stated that they wanted to keep a 2-2 overseas combination of batters and bowlers to balance both departments.

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"I think it's difficult to leave out everyone. I think you can ask the same question to every franchise. We are lucky to have that quality but the decision was around to try and compliment the local batting and bowling rather than just being dominant in one area so we thought the 2-2 split would suit us better," Vettori conceded.