KKR Vs SRH, IPL 2024 Match 3: Heinrich Klaasen's Innings Goes In Vain As Knight Riders Win By 4 Runs - As It Happened

Welcome to the live coverage of the third match of Indian Premier League 2024 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the prestigious Eden Gardens in Kolkata. After all the news of raking in the big bucks at the mini-auction, KKR's Mitchell Starc and SRH skipper Pat Cummins will look to give their side a winning start in the IPL 2024. Moreover, there is Travis Head waiting in the sidelines as well. Saturday, under the lights at Eden Gardens - things cannot get any better than this! Follow the live cricket scores and updates of the PBKS vs DC match 2 in the IPL 2024, here. (Scorecard | Streaming)

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Manish Pandey, Srikar Bharat, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Anukul Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Chetan Sakariya, Sherfane Rutherford, Vaibhav Arora, Dushmantha Chameera, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sakib Hussain, Suyash Sharma.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Mayank Agarwal, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Jaydev Unadkat, Anmolpreet Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Markande, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Maharaj Singh, Nitish Reddy.

It is worth noting that Aiden Markram-led Sunrisers Eastern Cape tasted success at the SA20 this season. Will the Sunrisers franchise repeat the heroics in the IPL 2024 albeit under a different captain?

Ian Bishop and Brian Lara: "The outfield looks tremendous, weather conditions are absolutely perfect. The dimensions - 67 metres and 62 metres square, 75 metres straight down the ground. It's not a big ground. I see a lot of runs, this surface is an even surface. There's a little tinge of grass on it but brown grass. This is an absolute belter for the batters and I expect to see a lot of runs on this surface. Any hope for the bowlers? Last year, the average first innings score was 193 and wrist spinners had a little bit of say. In both line-ups, I see a lot of experienced bowlers and they have to go to that experience to protect their figures. No team that bats first should feel comfortable with a score of over 200."

Pat Cummins has won the toss and elected to field first against Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

We gonna have a bowl, wicket looks pretty good. Jansen, Klaasen and Markram are the other three. This is my first game for Sunrisers, it's been awesome in the camp to the lead-up and the confidence is really high in the group.

Feel fantastic (talking about his recovery from back injury). I have been training well and played a few games as well. The spinners have been bowling tremendously over the past few seasons and all of them are lethal in their own way. I see a bit of dryness on this wicket and hopefully it will help them.

In the 25 games contested between the two, KKR has won 16 games while SRH has managed to win the rest of the nine.

And the action is all set to get underway in Eden Gardens between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad in match 3 of the IPL 2024.

Marco Jansen is a tall and lanky bowler but that does not matter one bit to Phillip Salt, who smacked three sixes. It's fair to say that Phil has rubbed the 'salt' in Sunrisers' wounds.

Pat Cummins' bowlers have stifled the Kolkata Knight Riders on their own patch with three quick wickets inside the power play. Despite Philip Salt's blitzkrieg, KKR lost their skipper Shreyas Iyer early.

KKR - 32-3 (4 Overs)

Nitish Rana was the fourth wicket to fall as Kolkata Knight Riders well further into the abyss as Sunrisers Hyderabad seized control of the game. Despite Phil Salt at the other end, KKR have lost wickets at intervals as they look to get a decent total on the board.

KKR - 53-4 (8 Overs)

With wickets losing at regular intervals, KKR batters Ramandeep Singh and Phil Salt stabilised the innings for the home team with a steady but blistering partnership as they brought parity to the side after a dismal start. Ramandeep was eventually out off Pat Cummins' bowling for a well-made 35 (17 balls).

KKR - 113-5 (13 Overs)

After a well-made half-century, English batter Phil Salt was dismissed by the young spinner Mayank Markande to leave KKR reeling at six down. With Rinku Singh and Andre Russell at the crease, the home team will hope the power-hitters would end the innings on a hope.

Dre Russ Is In The House! The West Indian smashed three huge sixes off Mayank Markande's over to give the KKR some relief including owner Shah Rukh Khan who is cheering from the stands. If Russell stays till the end, SRH could be in deep trouble.

KKR - 141-6 (16 Overs)

With six maximums to his name, Andre Russell has brought up his half-century in mere 20 deliveries against SRH. At one time, KKR were in deep, deep trouble but Russell and Rinku Singh are now looking at a target around 200-plus.

STAT: Andre Russell's first fifty vs SRH. He had three unbeaten scores of exactly 49 against them before today.

Despite a poor start by the KKR batters, they have posted a huge 208 to win in the allotted 20 overs against SRH. Phil Salt (54), Rinku Singh (23), Ramandeep Singh (35) and an unbeaten 64 from Andre Russell has helped them reach this total. For SRH, T Natarajan picked three wickets.

KKR - 208-7 (20 Overs)

Sunrisers Hyderabad begin their run-chase of 209 against KKR at the Eden Gardens.

SRH openers Abhishek Sharma and Mayank Agarwal have started on a positive note for Sunrisers Hyderabad. The former was dropped by Phil Salt off Mitchell Starc's bowling.

KKR 208/7 (20 overs)

SRH 58/0 (5 overs)

Mayank Agarwal's brief stay at the crease was halted by Harshit Rana as the SRH batter was dismissed for 32 runs. The bowler also had an altercation with Agarwal as he sent back the batter to the pavillion.

After enthralling one and all with the bat, Dre Russ scalped the wicket of the in-form Abhishek Tripathi (32) as the Sunrisers lost both their opening set batters.

Last season's skipper Aiden Markram made 18 as he was the third wicket to fall for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

KKR 208/7 (20 overs)

SRH 108/3 (12 overs)

Sunrisers need over 15 runs per over if they are get closer to KKR's 209 target. Heinrich Klaasen remains key for the visitors despite going four down.

KKR 208/7 (20 overs)

SRH 115/4 (14 overs)

SRH's Heinrich Klaasen remains key if they are to chase down the pending 60 runs in the final three overs.

KKR 208/7 (20 overs)

SRH 149/5 (17 overs)

South African wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen's blistering innings of 63(29) went in vain as SRH lost by 4 runs to KKR at Eden Gardens. The Proteas batter had put his side in sight of victory after hammering Mitchell Starc and the other Kolkata bowlers to all corners of The Gardens. However, Harshit Rana (3/33) produced a magical final over to take his side to a win.

KKR 208/7 (20)

SRH 204/7 (20)

I was really enjoying my time in the middle and just to play with intent and that was the plan. Want to thank Gauti bhai (Gambhir) and Abhishek bhai (Nayar), the way these guys backed me really helped my confidence. The plan from the outside (message from the dressing room for the final over) was to take the pace off as Klaasen was hitting anything that had pace and it worked really well. Really loved the atmosphere in the ground, really electrifying and hope we win like this.

Close game in the end, wonderful game of cricket. Unfortunately didn't go our way. I thought for the most part, really happy with how we bowled. Obviously Dre Russ at the end does what Dre Russ does, he's pretty hard to contain. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job. You do your planning, you try to execute your best but he's a pretty tough guy to bowl to, played some good shots, couple of balls maybe we could have bowled differently but toughest job in cricket is bowling at someone like that in the end. Goes one way or the other, amazing job by Klaas (Klaasen) and Shahbaz to get us back into the game and get us into that position. Who would have thought we'd get that close. We competed against a very good side at their home venue, lot to be encouraged by, lot of performers, a couple of pointers to work on also. Happy with how the toss went.

Right from the 17th over, had butterflies in my stomach. Felt anything could happen in the last over. They needed 13 runs and we didn't have the most experienced bowler. But I had the belief in him, and I told him to back himself and it doesn't matter what happens. He was a bit nervous coming in, and I just looked him in the eye and told him 'this is your moment, buddy.' Told him to back himself and doesn't matter what happens in the game. They have such experience. Great to see Andre perform with bat and ball, and even Sunny was splendid with the ball. Fantastic to have them around. Always gives you motivation when you start with a win.

Not really, sometimes stuff pop on my Insta and I realise how well I am striking the ball. Shows that you are doing well. I have tried to react with whatever comes my way. Over the last 2 years, bowlers have their plans against me. I have been digging out the runs, and I know everyone has a plan for me. I was on the bench early on, and just tried to make myself useful.

And so we call it a night! What a spectacle this match was. Right from the first delivery, till the end. If IPL 2024 will serve up such games, then bring on more! Do catch the two games tomorrow till then adios!