May 29 (Punjab Khabarnama) : Kolkata Knight Riders young paceman Harshit Rana disclosed that franchise co-owner Shah Rukh Khan fulfilled his promise to him after the IPL 2024 final. Rana had a breakthrough IPL season, playing a pivotal role in KKR’s third title victory. The young pacer from Delhi claimed 19 wickets in 13 matches. However, the incident that grabbed the limelight was the one-match ban. He was found guilty of a Level 1 offence under Article 2.5 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct during match 47 at the iconic Eden Gardens against Delhi Capitals. Rana accepted the Match Referee’s sanction.
The young fast bowler made an animated gesture toward DC’s Abhishek Porel after he got his wicket. It was the second time Harshit was penalised for his actions on the field as earlier 60% of his match fees was cut by the BCCI for giving a flying-kiss send-off to Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batter Mayank Agarwal.
The 22-year-old said that he was sad after getting banned and Shah Rukh gave him a pep talk and promised him that the whole team would celebrate with a flying kiss celebration if they win the IPL trophy. The Bollywood superstar fulfilled his promise after KKR lifted their third trophy on Sunday as the whole KKR team made a flying kiss celebration on the ground.
“Oh Yes! After I got banned for one match, I was very sad and then Shah Rukh sir came to me and said ‘Tu tension mat le ye waali celebration Trophy ke saath karenge (We will celebrate the IPL with a flying kiss). He promised me and made sure that we did that with the trophy and our team,” Harshit told Indian Express.
Meanwhile, the young pacer also did incredibly well in the IPL final as he claimed two wickets for just 24 runs in four overs and also delivered a maiden over – which is a rare feat in summit clash.
On Sunday, Mitchell Starc bowled a sensational opening spell to fire KKR to their third title with an eight-wicket thrashing of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kolkata bowled out Hyderabad for IPL’s lowest total of 113 in a final as Australia’s left-arm quick Starc returned figures of 2-14 to live up to his top billing in the world’s most lucrative T20 tournament.
Kolkata’s batsmen had it easy, despite Sunil Narine’s early departure as Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 39 and Venkatesh Iyer smacked 52 not out off 26 balls to help the team home with 9.3 overs to spare.