The IPL mood has captured the audience and they have got into battle mode with just two magnificent clashes between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals. Now, it's time to unveil the battles between the rest of the teams and the Sunrisers Hyderabad took on the Kolkata Knight Riders at Chennai on Sunday, which has become the third match of the current edition. 

David Warner, the SRH skipper won the toss and decided to field first, which was not a surprise. With stars like Natarajan and Rashid Khan, the SRH was hoping to bundle the KKR out for a low score. But it wasn't their day. Nitish Rana gave a fantastic opening to the KKR scoring 80 runs while Tripathi showed solidarity with a half-century. 

None of the other KKR batsmen could actually show some fire other than Dinesh Karthik who scored a quickfire 22 towards the end. Rashid Khan was the star for the SRH as he picked up 2 wickets with a very good economy rate. The Kolkata Knight Riders ended up with 187 for 6 in their 20 overs. 188 was the target for the Sunrisers and they thought it was possible since they have a strong batting line-up. 

But, the Riders put the Risers to witness a flawed opening towards the chase as SRH had lost David Warner and Saha quickly for 10 runs. Before this opening conquest could give any morale boost for the KKR, Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow joined hands and had put up a fantastic partnership of 92 runs in which both had got to their half-centuries. 

Once they lost Bairstow for 55, the SRH found themselves in trouble as they lost back-to-back wickets and eventually losing control of the game. In the end, though the Sunrisers had 5 wickets in hand, they could score only 177 runs in their 20 overs, falling short of the target by 10 runs. It was a convincing victory for the Kolkata Knight Riders finding some wonderful energy in the camp to take them home for the rest of the series.

KKR's Nitish Rana was named as the player of the match for displaying a splendid show in the bat by scoring 80 runs off 56 balls.  Kolkata's skipper Eoin Morgan was a happy man for having a potential start for their campaign, which has boosted the team for the rest of the battles. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Morgan said, "We are delighted. I thought it was magnificent, the guys batted today at the top of the order, in particular, Nitish and Tripathi".

He stated, "And the bowling too, couldn't have asked for a better start. It was a tight game against a really tough side. Really happy with the start. We were very happy with our score, we thought if we bowled half-decently well, we should get over the line". "There's a huge amount of thought and structure that goes into decisions on the field. We've got a great head coach and support staff. The IPL is all about results and I think guys buying in to what we are trying to do", Morgan added. 

After conceding the defeat, SRH's David Warner said, "I didn't think there were that many runs in that wicket. They adapted really well and had a good partnership. We failed to execute the first ball of most overs and then conceded a lot at the end. We lost early wickets, and Jonny and Manish got us in a good position, so we had our chances". He further said, "The dew made a difference. If the bowlers overpitched, it was easy to hit it, and with the height in their team, and with the cross-team, it stopped a little bit on us". "We would like to have won the first game. We have four more games at this venue and hopefully, we will get used to the square and the dimensions of this ground", he added. On Monday, Rajasthan Royals will take on Punjab Kings in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.