SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) were defeated by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 10 runs in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season opener at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. With the draw, KKR has a two-point lead over Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). After a dominant victory over MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals lead the points table with a superior net run rate. Rajasthan Royals will face Punjab Kings on Monday, with the winner joining Delhi, KKR, and RCB in the top four on the IPL 2021 points table.KKR posted a total of 187/6 on Sunday after being asked to bat, thanks to contributions from Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53).
Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow both scored half-centuries in retaliation, but their efforts were in vain as SRH fell 10 runs short of their 188-run mark.
The ongoing version of the IPL has only seen three games so far, but the battle for the Orange Cap is already heating up.
Shikhar Dhawan leads the scorers’ table with 85 runs after a brilliant half-century against CSK.
Second on the list is Nitish Rana, who scored an important 80 against SRH on Sunday. Prithvi Shaw of the Delhi Capitals and Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow of SRH are behind him.
In terms of the Purple Cap, RCB’s Harshal Patel, who bowled a match-winning spell of 5 for 27, is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker so far.
Avesh Khan, Rashid Khan, Chris Woakes, Jasprit Bumrah, Marco Jansen, Mohammad Nabi, Prasidh Krishna, and Shardul Thakur have all taken two wickets in the race for second place.