Kolkata Knight Riders spent INR 23.75 crore to sign Venkatesh Iyer in the IPL 2025 mega-auction. The Madhya Pradesh batter struggled heavily towards the start of the tournament but against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens, he wreaked havoc, smashing 60 runs off 29 deliveries. The 30-year-old had an extremely slow start to the game but slowly he found momentum and changed the complexion of the game with a powerful knock.
Notably, Venkatesh has now smacked three consecutive half-centuries against the 2016 champions. In the Qualifier 1 of the IPL 2024, he smashed an unbeaten 51 runs off 28 balls, while in the final, Venkatesh played a vital knock of unbeaten 52 runs off 26 deliveries. Courtesy of his knock, KKR won the match by eight wickets. Meanwhile, he kept with the momentum, smashing his third half-century against SRH in IPL 2025 on April 3.
Apart from Venkatesh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi hit a half-century as well. The youngster made 50 runs off 32 balls, while the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Rinku Singh contributed 38 and 32* runs respectively. The hosts posted 200 runs on the board in the first innings, which was brilliant, given that the surface had plenty to offer for the bowlers.
The defending champions will be optimistic to get the job done. They have named an extra spinner in the playing XI as Moeen Ali replaced Spencer Johnson in the playing XI. On the contrary, Hyderabad played an extra seamer in Kamindu Mendis. Interestingly, the Sri Lanka international had a good outing, picking up the wicket of Raghuvanshi but he wasn’t brought back after just one over.
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Pat Cummins’ captaincy will be under the scanner as playing an extra pacer went against their favour and choosing to bowl first after winning the too was also not a wise decision, when batting has been their biggest strength.
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