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Kolkata Knight Riders fast bowler Harshit Rana gave a brutal send-off to Sunrisers Hyderabad batter Mayank Agarwal after dismissing him during their IPL 2024 match in Kolkata on Saturday. Mayank looked in great touch but on the third ball of the sixth over, he tried to pull a bouncer from Rana and ended up gifting a catch to the fielder at deep backward square leg. Rana was ecstatic at taking his first wicket of this edition and he celebrated by blowing a flying kiss towards the batter. Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar was not impressed as he had his say about the matter on commentary.

“He should not have done that. Did the batsman do anything to him when he was hitting him for sixes? Cricket can be played without these antics. It’s the age of television. I understand that. Celebrate with your teammates but no need for such antics for the opposition,” he said on commentary.

Harshit Rana’s resilience in the final over and Andre Russel’s muscling fifty helped Kolkata Knight Riders survive Heinrich Klaasen’s six-hitting spree and score a thrilling four-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL 2024 match.

Klaasen almost turned the match on its head with a 29-ball 63 in which he moussed eight sixes without a single four.

Sealed with a kiss

Watch #KKRvSRH with #IPLonJioCinema now in Bengali#TATAIPL #IPL2024 #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/w2mf87HVa0

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) March 23, 2024

But SRH bravely chased KKR’s imposing 208/7, which was built around Russell’s (64, 25b) and Phil Salt’s 54 (40b), but could only make 204 for seven.

The South African took IPL’s costliest buy Mitchell Starc to cleaners smashing him for three sixes, while Bengal cricketer Shahbaz Ahmed ended the Aussie left-arm quick’s over with another six.

That 26-run over meant Starc, who joined the Knight Riders for a record Rs 24.75 crore, finished with woeful figures of 4-0-53-0.

Needing 13 off the last over, KKR gambled with rookie pacer Rana as he was hammered for seven runs off the first two balls.

But first he dismissed Shahbaz and then Klaasen off his penultimate delivery, which came through a superb backward diving catch by Suyash Sharma, to give the local side a fantastic win.

The Hyderabad outfit needed five runs off the last ball but skipper Pat Cummins failed to connect the ball, as Rana finished with fine figures (3/33).

(With PTI inputs)