Watch: Harshit Rana's flying-kiss send off to Mayank Agarwal heats up KKR vs SRH clash in IPL 2024

Game 3 of the ongoing IPL (Indian Premier League) 2024 featured a clash between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 23. Kolkata Knight Riders batted first and put forth a magnificent performance in the first innings, posting a total of 208 runs in the first innings. 

Aiming to defend the total, the two-time champions got off to a good start with the ball as well. Hyderabad opener Mayank Agarwal was sent packing by KKR pacer Harshit Rana, and as the star opener was dismissed, Rana presented Mayank with a send-off. 

The first wicket was taken on the third ball of the sixth over. Bowling a short delivery around off, Agarwal’s shot on the delivery was caught at deep backward square leg. 

Following the wicket, Harshit Rana blew a kiss to send off Mayank Agarwal. After the send-off, Agarwal looked back at Rana, which caused a viral moment, with the clip of the same making the rounds all over social media.

Kolkata’s resilient batting pulls side out of trouble

Speaking of the first innings of the clash, Kolkata Knight Riders got off to a good start with the bat as opener Phil Salt scored 54 runs in 40 deliveries. However, the rest of the batting order could not amount to much. 

Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, and Nitish Rana scored two, seven, zero, and nine runs, respectively. However, as the order looked to be collapsing, resilient knocks in the lower middle order stabilised the innings for the side. 

Ramandeep Singh added 35 runs in 17 balls, Rinku Singh scored 23 runs on the board, and Andre Russell was the star of the show, scoring 64* runs in 25 deliveries as KKR managed to post a total of 208 runs in the first innings of the clash.