The 16th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season witnessed the emergence of a youngster who mesmerised the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) fans and cricket fans in general with attacking strokeplay and became the youngest player to register a fifty-plus score in their maiden IPL innings.
Angkrish is one of the 23 players in the history of the tournament who have registered a fifty-plus score in their maiden IPL innings. The 18-year and 304-day-old player is the seventh youngest overall to register a fifty in the tournament.
The right-handed batter looked in sublime touch during the course of his 54-run knock. He annihilated Delhi Capitals' bowling attack alongside Sunil Narine and aggregated his runs at a lightning strike rate of 200.
He exhibited his boundary-hitting prowess to the fullest and struck five fours and three maximums. His knock helped Sunil Narine (85 off 39 balls) to carry on at his pace without worrying too much about the run rate.
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Angkrish was a part of India's World Cup-winning U19 Men's 2022 squad. Playing under the leadership of Yash Dhull, Angkrish finished the tournament as the leading run-getter for India with 278 runs at an average of 46.33. Kolkata Knight Riders picked him up at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai for Rs 20 lakhs.
Captain lauds emerging star
The captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders, Shreyas Iyer, lauded Angkrish for playing a "fearless" brand of cricket. Iyer also lavished praise on Angkrish for his "phenomenal work ethic".
"He was fearless from ball one, his work ethic is phenomenal, the way he played his shots were pleasing to the eye," Iyer told during the post-match presentation.
KKR IPL 2024 squad:
Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anukul Roy, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Chetan Sakariya, Sherfane Rutherford, Sakib Hussain, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera, Allah Ghazanfar, Nitish Rana
