Chakaravarthy’s ‘heartbeat touches 200’ in KKR’s impossible last-over win over SRH in IPL 2023

“My heartbeat was touching 200 in the last over,” Varun Chakaravarthy recalled after the mystery spinner managed to spin a web around Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to carve out a stunning win for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in match No. 47 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Thursday.

Chakaravarthy-inspired KKR side outclassed the 2016 champions by 5 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium to remain alive in the playoff race this season.

After leaking 12 runs in his first six balls, KKR skipper Nitish Rana brought spinner Chakaravarthy back into the attack to bowl the 16th over. Aiden Markram’s SRH side only needed 38 from 30 balls and the Orange Army had five wickets in hand at the time. With skipper Markram closing in on his half-century and Abdul Samad trying to switch gears for SRH, KKR spinner Chakaravarthy raised the bar by conceding only four runs in the 16th over.

With rain gods making their presence felt, Chakaravarthy then bowled the 18th over and only conceded 5 runs to pile more pressure on SRH. The hosts were one run ahead of KKR on the DLS par score at the time. After Vaibhav Arora conceded 12 runs in the penultimate over, the onus was on Chakaravarthy to deliver the goods for the Knight Riders in the final six balls of the humdinger.

“I saw you going for the ball in the last over but it was taken out of your hand,” Ravi Shastri quizzed Shardul Thakur after Chakaravarthy was preferred by KKR over the star seamer. “Captain had a feeling that should I bowl Chakaravarthy,” Shardul told Shastri during the post-match interaction. Kolkata skipper Rana decided to go with his gut instincts and it paid KKR rich dividends.

Tasked to defend 8 runs in the final over, Chakaravarthy turned the tie on its head by removing an on-song Samad for 21 (18) on the third ball. Wrapping up the contest in KKR’s favour, Chakaravarthy only gave 3 runs in the final over as Rana and Co. pulled off a heist at Hyderabad. Chakaravarthy fired 8 dot balls out of 18 in the death overs and the star spinner only leaked 8 runs in the spell to seal KKR’s stunning win over SRH in the IPL 2023.

“The ball was slipping a lot and my best bet was longer side and that was my only hope. My first over I went for 12 runs, Markram hit me for 2 fours and that’s how the game goes. Last year I was bowling around 85kmph, I was trying out many things and I realized that I needed to work on my revolutions and I did work on it,” said Chakaravarthy, who was also named the Player of the Match.