IPL Man of the Match today 2021: Who was awarded the Man of the Match in IPL 2021 SRH vs KKR Match 3?

IPL Man of the Match today: The opening batsman from Kolkata Knight Riders was awarded the Man of the Match award tonight.

During the third match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs to begin their IPL 2021 campaign on a winning note.

Chasing a 188-run target, Sunrisers scored 177/5 in 20 overs despite a potentially dangerous 92-run partnership for the second wicket between Manish Pandey (61*) and Jonny Bairstow (55) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

However, minimal support from the other batsmen barring Abdul Samad (19*) sucked the momentum out of Sunrisers’ innings tonight. With bowling figures of 4-0-35-2, Prasidh Krishna was the pick of the bowlers for the Knight Riders. In addition to Krishna, the likes of Pat Cummins, Andre Russell and Shakib Al Hasan picked a wicket apiece.

IPL Man of the Match today 2021

Earlier, Kolkata posted a dominating 187/6 in their allotted quota of 20 overs after Sunrisers captain David Warner won the toss and chose to field. It was a 93-run partnership for the second wicket between Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) which powered KKR to such a total.

Contrary to expectations, Rana partnered Shubman Gill (15) at the top as Knight Riders gave the impression of aiming to trouble the opposition bowlers with a left-right opening combination.

It was on the first delivery of the match that Rana drove Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a glorious boundary. A bit fortunate in the powerplay, Rana put all his luck to use scoring frequent boundaries against the new ball especially off Sandeep Sharma.

Having scored 36* (25) in the powerplay, Rana didn’t let his start go waste as he hit nine fours and four sixes to not just top score for his team but also win the ‘Man of the Match’ award for his 12th IPL half-century.

“I thought the ball [first ball off Bhuvneshwar] was in my slot and luckily I got a four. My game-plan is always that if the ball is in my slot, I’ll try to hit it. I was backing myself and looking to hit balls. I’ve been playing spin since childhood, so in a way, it’s in my blood,” Rana told Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony.