In their previous match, Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets with 13 balls to spare. Star batsman Rahul Tripathi, who played for KKR in 2021 and 2020, extinguished the burning hope of victory in his former clan.
SRH had won the toss and opted to bowl. The Kane Williamson-led team made a great start by taking three wickets in the powerplay. Nitish Rana and Andre Russell however, kept KKR's scoreboard ticking and KKR set a target of 175.
Tripathi smashed a jaw-dropping 71 off 37 balls and made it easy for SRH to acquire two more points on the board.
Tripathi, who was a regular feature in the KKR's line-up had his best season in 2021. He scored 397 runs and played a key role in the team's journey to the final. But his name did not make it to the squad's retained players list.
In the IPL Mega Auction, KKR stopped bidding for the opener and finisher at 6 crores. SRH on the other hand indulged in a bidding war against CSK and snared Tripathi for 8.50 crores.
In Friday's match, he was ruthless against his former teammates. "I had fun. Andre Russell bangs in short, and I was looking for the pull if he bowled short. Varun Chakravarthy bowls well. I didn't expect him to bowl up. So I thought of putting him under pressure," he said in the post-match presentation.
Currently, Tripathi's ball-striking form is rare. So far this season, Tripathi has assembled 171 runs in 5 matches with a strike rate of 178.12. He has scored 44 (vs LSG), 39 not out (CSK) and 17 not out (GT) and 71 against his former team. Among batsmen who have faced at least 50 balls in this 15th edition of IPL, only Liam Livingstone, Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell have better strike rates.
For today's match of Hyderabad against Punjab, SRH fans are looking forward to seeing yet another brilliant knock by Tripathi.
