IPL 2025: Kolkata Knight Riders trounces SRH by 80 runs to win second game of the season

Defending Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders displayed ruthlessness on the field against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday. KKR beat Pat Cummins’ side by a massive margin of 80 runs to record their second win of the IPL 2025 season. It was a comprehensive win for Ajinkya Rahane and his side, who were sitting at the bottom of the table before the game. 

Batting first, KKR scored 200 runs for the loss of six wickets from their 20 overs. Venkatesh Iyer (60) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (50) were the best batters for the home side while skipper Ajinkya Rahane scored 38 key runs. Mohammed Shami was the best bowler for SRH with 1/29 from his four overs. 

Needing 201 runs to win, SRH were reduced to nine for three wickets inside three overs. Vaibhav Arora got the wicket of Travis Head for four runs as Harshit Rana took an amazing catch. Abhishek Sharma was the next to go when he was caught in the slips by Iyer off Rana. Ajinkya Rahane then pulled off one of the best catches of the season to get rid of Ishan Kishan for two runs. 

Varun Chakravarthy’s magical spell deflates SRH batters

Debutant Kamindu Mendis joined Nitish Reddy with the pair adding 35 runs for the fourth wicket. Reddy was out after scoring 19 runs when he holed out to Sunil Narine off Andre Russell in the seventh over. Mendis then perished for 27 dismissed by Narine while Klaasen scored 33 runs to top score for his side. 

Varun Chakravarthy ran through SRH’s lower middle order when he dismissed Aniket Verma for six runs. The 33-year-old then got Pat Cummins and Simarjeet Singh off successive balls to spell the death knell for the SRH side. In the end, Chakravarthy finished with 3/22 from his four overs as KKR won the game by 33 runs. 

Speaking to the broadcasters at the end of the game, Pat Cummins said, “Not a great night tonight. In the mid-innings break, we thought it was gettable. It was a pretty good wicket. Gave away a few too many in the field and obviously fell short (with the bat). You have to be realistic - three games in a row, it has not come off for us. Less than two weeks ago, we put on 280. Our batters are at their best taking it on, but you have to think about if you could take different options.