KKR opener Nitish Rana plays a shot against CSK in Dubai on Thursday.
Nitish Rana has find form for Kolkata Knight Riders at the right time this season as the opener scored his second fifty in three innings as the side takes on Chennai Super Kings to keep their IPL 2020 play-off hopes alive.
The 25-year old southpaw took his time to build the innings initially and timely accelerated the scoring with seven boundaries and a six to reach his third fifty of the season and 11th overall in 44 balls.
Put into bat first, KKR openers Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana took an aggressive approach from the word go as the shot Deepak Chahar for three boundaries in the first over. Shubman was more eager of the two as he shot those odd boundaries in the powerplay while his left-handed partner took his time to adjust to the pitch.
However, Rana didn’t take long to open up his arm by taking Mitchell Santner for 16 runs in the sixth over as KKR reached 48 at the end of the powerplay. The 43-ball 60 stand was halted by Karn Sharma, who struck with his first delivery of the match in Shubman (26 off 17).
Santner removed Sunil Narine (7 off 7), who came in with the intention to score quickly, in the next over to put CSK in driver’s seat.
Rana then had a crucial 33-run stand with Rinku Singh for the third wicket to take the pressure off the KKR shoulder. Rinku, playing his first game this season, couldn’t hold on longer and throw away his wicket to Ravindra Jadeja in the 13th over.
Rana then had a crucial 33-run stand with Rinku Singh for the third wicket to take the pressure off the KKR shoulder. Rinku, playing his first game this season, couldn’t hold on longer and throw away his wicket to Ravindra Jadeja in the 13th over.
This hardly had any bearing on Rana, who soon reached his half century and then shot Karn Sharma for three consecutive sixes to bring back the much needed pace to KKR innings.
