Andre Russell was fit throughout the first 3 matches of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to have a bowl but didn’t bowl a single ball. In KKR’s fourth game, against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), not only Andre Russell had a bowl, but picked up 2 big wickets in his first over in the tournament!
On Friday evening, KKR hosted SRH at the Eden Gardens, where Harry Brook got off to a flier for SRH, cracking Umesh Yadav for 3 fours and 2 sixes in Yadav’s two-over spell with the new ball. Lockie Ferguson was also taken for 14 runs in his first over.
For some reason – perhaps to use the short pitch stuff against Brook and Agarwal – then, KKR captain Nitish Rana brought on Andre Russell in the 5th over itself with the field restrictions still in place.
Russell was brought on in the attack to deliver a breakthrough for KKR – perhaps asking a bit too much from a bowler who hadn’t bowled a single ball in the first three matches – but the Jamaican stepped up to the challenge and dismissed Mayank Agarwal on the first ball of his IPL 2023.
No surprise that it was back-of-length delivery that got Agarwal fending, and outside edging to Varun Chakravarthy at short third-man.
Russell was then cracked for a four on the first ball Rahul Tripathi faced. The West Indian speedster had the last laugh: on the last ball of the over, Andre Russell banged it in short; Tripathi went for the pull, but the ball hurried onto him, took the top-edge and wicket-keeper Gurbaz took a simple catch.
Andre Russell was delighted, so was KKR captain Nitish Rana and so was the jam-packed Eden Garden crowd.
Watch: Andre Russell takes 2 SRH wickets in his first over in IPL 2023
Teams:
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram(c), Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, T Natarajan
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Suyash Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakaravarthy
