Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered their third straight Indian Premier League defeat, with half-centuries from Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Venkatesh Iyer helping Kolkata Knight Riders to an 80-run win in a repeat of the 2024 final.

The Sunrisers, runners-up last year, started the 2025 edition with a thumping victory over Rajasthan Royals, against whom they managed 286-6. But two straight defeats had seen them tumble down the standings, level with Kolkata on two points ahead of Thursday's match.

Captain Pat Cummins (1-44) and paceman Mohammed Shami (1-26) helped them make a strong start with the ball, taking the respective wickets of Quinton de Kock (one) and Sunil Narine (seven) to leave KKR 16-2 midway through the third over.

But Kolkata skipper Ajinkya Rahane joined Raghuvanshi in an 81-run stand for the third wicket, settling the hosts' nerves. 

After Raghuvanshi slammed back-to-back boundaries in the 11th over, Rahane perished for 38 while attempting another big hit, misjudging Zeeshan Ansari's ball as Heinrich Klaasen gathered an easy catch.

Raghuvanshi brought up his half-century from his 30th ball faced, but when a world-class catch from Harshal Patel sent him walking, KKR were wobbling at 106-4.

Enter Venkatesh, who slammed 60 runs off 29 balls before being taken by Aniket Verma in the final over, with support from Rinku Singh (32 not out) helping Kolkata finish 200-6.

The Hyderabad chase was in trouble from the word go. Travis Head hit Vaibhav Arora for four off the first ball, but then fell victim to a superb Harshit Rana catch off the next.

Head-ing towards the business, right from the start  pic.twitter.com/0XDCRftT1I

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 3, 2025

Kolkata refused to let up in their pursuit of wickets. When Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan were both caught for two wickets off back-to-back balls, the stunned Sunrisers were 9-3.

Nitish Kumar Reddy's three boundaries in the fifth over could have signalled the start of a response, but he half-heartedly flicked at Andre Russell's ball sonn after and was taken in by Narine.

Only Klaasen (33) made more than 30 runs for the Sunrisers, with Arora (3-22) and Varun Chakravarthy (3-29) ensuring they were bowled out for a mere 120.

IT'S ALL OVER!  RUN WIN at amader Eden 

Enjoyed that, Knights Army? 

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 3, 2025

Data debrief: Venkatesh's favourite opponents

It is fair to say Venkatesh likes facing Sunrisers Hyderabad. This was his third straight half-century in matches against them, having scored 51 in the first qualifier in last year's playoffs, then 52 in the grand final.

Kolkata seem to have SRH's number at present, winning their last three matches against them in convincing fashion.

Alongside Rinku Singh, Venkatesh put on a 91-run stand for KKR's fifth wicket, lifting them from a troublesome 106-4 to a monstrous 197-5 – the Knight Riders have only recorded a better fifth-wicket stand on four occasions in their IPL history.