Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) thrashed Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by eight wickets in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match no 28 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
With a win on the first day of the Bengali New Year, KKR stayed in second position but now have eight points to their names as LSG, with six points, slipped down to fifth with a poorer Net Run Rate.
The Sun’s rage washed over the Kolkata Maidans even as thousands lined up outside the gate ahead of the match. Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided KKR would field first in the sultry conditions. KL Rahul suggested he would have done the same. The first ball from Mitchell Starc explained why.
Quinton de Kock shot the ball back where it came from to get the match underway. The very next ball got the same treatment. Vaibhav Arora shared the new ball and was smacked around only to come back and dismiss de Kock. Starc though kept going for runs at the other end as Deepak Hooda joined his skipper in the onslaught.
Stay updated with the latest from IPL 2024, including top contenders for the IPL 2024 Orange Cap and IPL 2024 Purple Cap. Explore the complete IPL 2024 Schedule, IPL 2024 Points Table and players with the Most Sixes, Most Fours and Most Fifties in IPL 2024
Hooda is no KL though as he fell to Starc who would thank Ramandeep Singh for taking an absolute blinder.
In the next five overs, KL and Ayush Badoni took stock of the situation and decided to play the ball on merit as KKR spinners were introduced into the fray with the guile of Sunil Narine and the smarts of Varun Chakaravarthy.
With the overs quietly going by, albeit punctured by the occasional boundary, KL decided enough was enough. Andre Russell got his wicket, Ramandeep with another catch, as the LSG skipper tried to press on the accelerator.
Marcus Sotinis and Badoni tried to up the ante thereafter but the former was sent back by a smart catch by Phil Salt off Chakaravarthy. Narine got the wicket of the latter, who was looking desperate to increase the scoring rate.
It was all on Nicholas Pooran again to take LSG to a competitive total. He smacked the short ball from Vaibhav Arora for two massive sixes and then smoked Harshit Rana over third man for a boundary. Mitchell Starc came back to clean up the stumps and send back Pooran but not before he had helped LSG add 35 runs in the final three overs. Impact Sub Arshad Khan hit a streaky boundary but was also clean bowled on the last delivery of the innings as Lucknow managed to huff and puff to 161/7 from their 20 overs.
KKR, started the chase rather aggressively as Sunil Narine and Phil Salt went after debutant pace sensation from West Indies Shamar Joseph. 22 runs from the first over, the most expensive this season so far.
Mohsin Khan shared the new ball and managed the wicket of Narine, who held out in the deep to Marcus Stoinis. Angkrish Raghuvanshi though ended the over with a huge maximum.
Salt, at the other end, creamed Krunal Pandya for three back-to-back boundaries. Young Raghuvanshi though looked in a hurry to replicate his batting partner. As Mohsin continued his spell, Raghuvanshi feathered it through to the keeper.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer and Salt joined forces to calm things down for KKR. The pair stitched a 120-run stand for the third wicket, maintaining a run rate of around 10 throughout, with both getting reprieves on multiple occasions.
Salt reached his fifty in 26 deliveries as KKR crossed the 100-run mark within the 10 overs.
Even though Shreyas was slow in terms of his strike-rate, he built on the start and missed chances from the opposition, to accelerate once.
There was a run-out scare too as constant miscommunications between the pair boiled over in the 12th over.
KL looked shuffled his pack multiple times but none of his bowlers could trump the KKR batter as the pair went on to complete their 100-run stand off just 71 balls.
In the end, Salt, unbeaten on 89 and Shreyas, unbeaten 38, saw KKR home with eight wickets in hand and 26 balls to spare.
Comments
0 comment