Udaipur, April 4, 2025: The match was a T20 game with 40 overs for both teams, 20 overs each. Yesterday in the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders won the 40-over match against Sunrisers Hyderabad by turning the game around in just 5 overs.

Don't get me wrong—"won in 5 overs" does not mean that the match ended in 5 overs. It means that Kolkata took only 5 overs to completely change the course of the game. After last season's final, KKR emerged as the winning team.

KKR’s strong finish made the difference

In the IPL match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders batted first and scored 200 runs for 6 wickets in 20 overs. In reply, Sunrisers Hyderabad were all out for just 120 runs in 16.4 overs. At first glance, it may seem that Kolkata’s batting and bowling were equally responsible for the big 80-run win. But in reality, the last 5 overs of Kolkata’s batting changed the entire game.

Last 5 overs

After losing the toss, Kolkata batted first and reached 122/4 in 15 overs. Up until that point, their score was quite similar to what Hyderabad later managed while chasing. However, between overs 16 to 20, Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh completely changed the match. They smashed Hyderabad bowlers all around the ground and scored 78 runs in the last 30 balls.

Game changers

Venkatesh Iyer, who was under pressure after scoring only 3 and 6 in his last two matches, took just 5 runs from his first 8 balls in this game too. Rinku Singh also wasn’t in good touch, with scores of 12 and 17 earlier. But both batters turned the game around in the death overs. Venkatesh scored 60 off 29 balls (7 fours, 3 sixes) before getting out on the third ball of the final over. Rinku remained not out, scoring 32 off 17 balls (4 fours, 1 six). Their late-innings partnership took Kolkata to a match-winning total of 200.

Hyderabad collapsed early

Hyderabad had a bad start while chasing. Vaibhav Arora dismissed Travis Head in the very first over. In the next over, Harshit Rana got Abhishek Sharma out. After that, wickets kept falling regularly. Kolkata’s bowlers, especially Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora, took full advantage of the pressure.

Match Summary

Kolkata: 200/6 in 20 overs

(Venkatesh 60, Raghuvanshi 50, Rahane 38, Rinku 32*; Mendis 1/4)

Hyderabad: 120 all out in 16.4 overs

(Klaasen 33, Mendis 27; Varun 3/22, Vaibhav 3/29)

Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 80 runs

Man of the Match: Vaibhav Arora