Hyderabad vs Kolkata: Key stats from Kolkata's 10-run win

Eoin Morgan’s Team Kolkata registered their 100th Indian T20 League victory on Sunday, April 11, when they got the better of a struggling Hyderabad unit by 10 runs.

Hyderabad’s decision to field first backfired big time as Kolkata made a blistering start to their new season. Openers Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill combined for a 53-run partnership, which was followed by Rahul Tripathi’s quick-fire half-century and a little cameo from Dinesh Karthik which took Kolkata total to 187/6.

No one apart from Rashid Khan from Hyderabad managed to keep their bowling economy in check. David Warner’s men faltered with the bat too, with only Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow making sort of mark. The contrast in their batting display can be laid down by the fact that while Kolkata scored 50/0 in the powerplay overs and 95/1 between 7-15 overs, Hyderabad could only muster 35/2 in powerplay and 84/1 in the middle overs.

Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the key stats from the game.

Nitish Rana - The man in form

Opener Nitish Rana left no stones unturned as he was on the neck of Hyderabad’s bowlers right from the beginning. The 27-year-old first played a fifty-plus run stand with Shubman Gill and repeated the feat with Rahul Tripathi. In the midst, he got his 12th half-century in the Indian T20 League, two of which have come against Hyderabad.

Interestingly, this was Rana’s third half-century in his last five Indian T20 League innings, with the 27-year-old crossing the 80-run mark in all of those outings. This effort of a 56-ball 80 is now the second-best score by a Kolkata batsman against Hyderabad. Here’s the list:

• Gautam Gambhir - 90* in April 2016
• Nitish Rana - 80 in April 2021
• Yusuf Pathan - 72 in May 2014

Rana scored a whopping 75% of his runs through boundaries (60/80), which is also the second most runs scored by a Kolkata player against Hyderabad through boundaries. Rana played with a certain pattern against Hyderabad. While he was particularly destructive against the pacers, scoring 75% of his runs, he looked weak against spinners as his strike rate against them was just 90.9. He anyway got the job done.

Rashid Khan loves Kolkata

While all of the other Hyderabad bowlers were taken to the cleaners, the Afghanistan duo of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi kept things tight for Kolkata. Rashid Khan, in particular, was at his very best picking two wickets while giving away just 24 runs. Nabi, on the other hand, picked two but went for 32 runs.

As things stand, Rashid Khan has an impressive economy of 6.78 against Kolkata in the Indian T20 League, which is the best figure by any other bowler with a minimum of 250 balls. As far as Nabi is concerned, both of his victims - Rana and Morgan - were left-handers, which means that 76.92 % of his wickets in the league are left-handers. He has had major success against them, bowling at an economy of 5.53 compared to his economy of 7.92 against right-handers.

Pace bowling comparison 

It goes without saying that there was a huge difference between the pace bowling contingent of both the teams. Despite having the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T. Natarajan in the rank, the Hyderabad pacers gave away a whopping 131 runs at an economy of over 10. The stark contrast here is the return of Kolkata’s pacers, who gave away 97 runs in 11 overs at 8.82 while bowling 25 dot balls.

If not for Bairstow and Pandey, the figure would have been much lesser. Prasidh Krishna, in particular, was the star of the show, picking two wickets while giving away 35 runs. He has now taken his tally to six wickets against Hyderabad in the Indian T20 League, which is the most wickets he has picked against any other team.

Feature image courtesy: Twitter / @IPL