IPL: Brook’s unbeaten century gives Sunrisers enough to trump Knight Riders

Harry Brook scored a magnificent maiden Indian Premier League century to set up a 23-run win for Sunrisers Hyderabad over Kolkata Knight Riders.

The England batter failed in his first three IPL knocks, but he struck a sublime unbeaten 100 from 55 balls to get Sunrisers up to an imposing total of 228-4 at Eden Gardens on Friday.

Brook hit three sixes and 12 fours to register the first IPL hundred of the season, while captain Aiden Markram blasted 50 from 26 deliveries and Abhishek Sharma made a brisk 32 after KKR skipper Nitish Rana put Sunrisers in.

Rapid half-centuries from Rana (75 from 41) and Rinku Singh (58 off 31) gave the Knight Riders hope, but they fell short on 205-7 as Hyderabad secured a second successive win following back-to-back defeats.

Andre Russell (3-22) dismissed Mayank Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi in his first over before the all-rounder left the field with an injury, with Brook and Markram then putting on 72 to silence a huge crowd.

Brook was dropped by Suyash Sharma on 45 and that proved to be costly, while Markram cleared the rope five times before he was caught off the bowling of Varun Chakravarthy in the deep.

The classy Brook stepped on the accelerator to reach three figures and Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Rahmanullah Gurbaz at the start of the run chase.

Marco Jansen (2-37) reduced KKR to 20-3 and they were 96-5 when Russell departed, but Rana and Rinku made a game of it with a stand of 69.

Their fireworks were in vain, though, Mayank Markande taking 2-27 and Kumar keeping it tight with 1-29 as KKR suffered a second loss.

Brook pays off part of his price tag

Sunrisers forked out 13.25 crore (£1.325million) to land the sought-after Brook in the auction and he demonstrated exactly why in his fourth IPL match.

Having made only 29 combined in his previous three innings, the 24-year-old carried his bat after reaching 50 off 32 balls and racing to a century from 55.

Brook took 23 off an over from Lockie Ferguson, the runs flowing on both sides of the wicket in a brilliant exhibition of batting.

Rana in the runs again

Rana registered his 16th IPL half-century in a run-fest, cashing in on a great pitch.

This was his fourth score of 50 or more against Sunrisers, but it was not enough to pull off what would have been a record IPL run chase. (SportsMax)