Kolkata, Mar 24 (IANS): Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has hailed Kolkata Kight Riders' (KKR) pacer Harshit Rana's impressive final over bowling in the thrilling win against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2024 match on Saturday.
Rana was handed the ball to bowl the last over when Sunrisers needed 13 to win, and Heinrich Klaasen smacked the first ball for a humongous six. A single followed, but Shahbaz Ahmed holed out to long-on off the next ball.
Marco Jansen managed just a single off his first ball, but the match turned around again as Rana had Klaasen (63 off 29) brilliantly caught at short third man by Suyash Sharma off a slower one.
With five needed off the last ball, Harshit Rana bowled a clever slower one again outside off, and captain Pat Cummins swung and missed and KKR clinch the thriller by 4 runs.
"Fantastic. He totally learned from that first ball he bowled; it was a quicker delivery and it was pulled for a six by Klaasen. The next five deliveries he took the pace off, bowled those slow cutters, slower off-cutters which actually meant that there was no pace coming off the surface for the batters to play the big shot," said Gavaskar on Star Sports 'Cricket Live'.
"So fantastic over, absolutely top class over from Harshit Rana. I think they gave Russell for his 2 wickets and 64 the player of the match, but they must also give something to Harshit Rana for his spell and particularly for that last over," he added.
Meanwhile, former West Indies cricketer Brian Lara spoke on Mitchell Starc's debut for KKR. The Kolkata-based franchised spent a whooping sum of Rs 24.70 crore in the mini auction held last December, establishing the Australian speedster as the costliest player in IPL history following a fierce bidding war with the Gujarat Titans.
"I think the strength of Mitchell Starc, we all know around the world, is that ability to use that new ball to get wickets. He didn't get any wickets with the new ball. And when you play him at the back end, that's not his forte, his forte is up front. But it's only the first game, so it's alright," said Lara.