IPL 2021: ‘Brown Munde’ Nitish Rana explains his half-century celebration after KKR’s win over SRH

Nitish Rana was on top of his game in Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Sunday in the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL). The left-hander opened the batting and notched 80 runs off 56 balls with nine fours and four sixes. When he got out, KKR were in a commanding position with their score at 160 for four in 17.3 overs.

Rana got to his fifty off 37 balls after which he pressed the accelerator. Mohammad Nabi cut short his stay in the middle. In the meantime, after getting to his half-century, Rana came up with a quirky celebration, pointing his three fingers downwards. After the Knights won the IPL game at the Chepauk by 10 runs, the southpaw explained the reasons behind the celebration.

Harbhajan Singh and Nitish Rana have fun

He revealed the same while speaking to Harbhajan Singh after the match. “The celebration was for my friends. It means the friends in our circle like the song Brown Munde,” Rana mentioned.

Talk about being on song 🎶🎶@28anand gets @harbhajan_singh & @NitishRana_27 rapping post @KKRiders' win over #SRH. 😎😎 #VIVOIPL #SRHvKKR @Vivo_India

Watch the full interview 🎥👇https://t.co/9hAW2yvm0H pic.twitter.com/DlL6osKbfY

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 12, 2021

Thereafter, both Harbhajan and Rana sang the popular Punjabi number ‘Brown Munde’ to entertain the fans and supporters.

After being put in to bat first, the Knights started with a four courtesy a glorious stroke from Rana. He also played the spinners, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, without many troubles. After his 53-run stand for the opening wicket with Shubman Gill, Rana also stitched together a partnership of 93 runs with Rahul Tripathi, who scored a quick-fire 29-ball 53.

“I thought the ball was in my slot so I went for it and luckily got four off my first ball. In my mind there’s only one thing: play my shots if the ball is there. Just backed myself. Have played a lot of spin growing up,” Rana was quoted as saying in the presentation ceremony.

In the run-chase, SRH, well and truly, were in the hunt when Jonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey were going all guns blazing. After the Sunrisers lost the early wickets of Wriddhiman Saha and David Warner, it was Bairstow and Pandey’s 92-run stand that brought SRH back into the game. But in the end, despite Pandey staying unbeaten on a half-century, KKR came out trumps.