It was a six-hitting show at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata as Andre Russell played a magical innings for 2-time IPL Champions Kolkata Knight Riders during match 3 of IPL 2024 against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
KKR were reeling on 51-4 after 7.3 overs and no one would have thought that they would end up setting a mammoth target of 209 runs but Andre Russell along with debutant Phil Salt and Rinku Singh played some unbelievable shots towards the end of the innings as KKR added 86 in last 6 overs.
Russell in particular played a knock of 64 in 25 deliveries which included 3 fours and 7 sixes. It was not just spinners, but Russell treated pace bowlers as brutally.
Earlier, Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first and the SRH pace-attack began their IPL 2024 brilliantly as Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer failed to touch double-digit mark. KKR promoted Sunil Narine as the opener but that decision backfired as he was run out whereas skipper Shreyas Iyer was dismissed on a duck.
It was then Phil Salt, who held on to one end and added 54 runs for the 5th wicket with Ramandeep Singh and then Andre Russell and Rinku Singh did the final flourish. During this course, Russell also became the fastest batsman to smash 200 sixes in the IPL.